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COPYRIGHT DEPOStr. 



EMINENT AMEEICANS 



COMPRISING 



BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES 



LEADING STATESMEN, PATRIOTS, ORATORS AND 
OTHERS, MEN AND WOMEN, WHO HAVE 
MADE AMERICAN HISTORY. 

/ 

By BENSON J. LOSSING, I,L.D. 

Author of '-History of the United States," "Field Book of the Revolution," 
"War of 1312," "Civil War in the Unitod States," etc. 



ILLLjSTRATED IViTH OVER ONE HUNDRED FINE PORTRAITS. 
Chiefly by Logsing and Baeeitx. — Crr%t "^ 



NEW YORK: 

JOHN B. ALDEN, PUBLISHER. 



I 



n 



Copyright, 1886, 1883, 1881, 1869, 1855, by 
BENSON J, LOSSING. 



TROWS 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 

NEW YORK. 



PREF A CB. 



" Lives of great men all remind us 
We may make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Foot-prints on the sands of Time." 

"piOGRAPHY is History teaching by example. It is the basis 
of all historical structures. The Chronicles of the nations 
are composed of the sayings and doings of their men and women. 
These make up the sum of History. 

Sallust says, " I have often heard that Quintus Maximus, Pub- 
lius Scipio, and other renowned persons of the Roman Com- 
monwealth, used to say that, whenever they beheld the images 
of their ancestors, they felt their minds vehemently excited to 
virtue. It could not be the wax, nor the marble, that possessed 
this power ; but the recollections of their great actions kindled 
a generous flame in their breasts, which could not be quelled 
till they, also, by Virtue, had acquired equal fame and glory." 

It is with the earnest desire of producing precisely such effects 
upon the minds and hearts of the young people of our country, 
that this volume has been prepared — that these images have been 
set up. The Roman youth were excited to great, and generous, 
and virtuous deeds, by the sight of material objects and the 
voices of Orators. Our youth have their aspirations for noble 



IV PREFACE. 



achievements awakened and cherished more by the silent yet 
potent ministration of Books which tell of men worthy to be 
imitated as examples, or studied as warnings, than by merely 
sensuous impressions. 

The materials for this book have been drawn from the Annals 
of the United States of America, as Colonies and as a Federal 
Hepubhc. Such persons have been selected, as examples, who 
seemed to illustrate by their lives, some special phase in the po- 
litical, reUgious, and social life of our country, during its won- 
derful progress from its earliest settlement until the present 
time. I have endeavored to present such prominent points of 
character and deeds, in their Hves, as would give the reader a 
general idea of their relative position in the history of their 
times ; and have also aimed to make the brief sketches so at- 
tractive and suggestive, as to excite a desire in the younsc to 
know more of these characters and their historical relations, and 
'Vns to persuade them to enter upon the pleasant and profitable 
employment of studying the prominent persons' and events of 
our Republic. If this volume shall achieve that result, the 
pleasure experienced by the Author in the preparation of it, will 
be distributed according to his desire. 



The Ridge, Dover Plains, N. Y. 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

A 

Abbott, Jacob 470 

Adams, Samuel 76 

Adams, John 87 

Adams, John Q 309 

Allerton, Isaac 14 

AlHson, Francis 47 

Alexander, William 106 

Allen, Ethan V2S 

Allston, Washington 262 

Ames, Fisher 71 

Anderson, Richard C 299 

Armstrong, John 316 

Arnold, Benedict 135 

Asbury, Francis 195 

Ashe, John 99 

Ashmun, Jehudi 325 

Astor, John Jacob 379 

Audubon, John J 272 

B 

Bacon, Nathaniel 42 

Bainbridge, William 340 

Baldwin, Thomas 20i 

Baldwin. Abraham 256 

Ballou, Hosea 318 

Banneker, Benjamin 406 

Bartram, John 45 

Barlow, Joel 117 

Bard, Samuel 118 

Barney, Joshua 120 

Barry, John 121 

Barton, William 137 

Bayard. James A 207 

Beck, T. Romeyn 409 

Belknap, Jeremy 104 

Benton, Thomas Hart 448 

Biddle, Nicholas 346 

Bland, Richard 142 

Blennerhassett, Harman 377 

Boone, Daniel 192 

Boudinot, Elias : 133 

Boudoin. James. 65 

Bowditch, Nathaniel 240 

Boyleston, Zabdiel 61 

Bradford, William 02 

Bradford, William 198 

Brainerd, David 101 

Brant, Joseph 1.58 

Brewster, William 10 

Brooks, John 145 

Brown, Charles B 290 

Brown, Jacob 338 

Brown, James 348 

BroAvn, Moses 371 

Bryant, William CuUen 476 



PAGIL 

Buchanan, James 435 

Buel, Jesse 356 

Burr, Aaron 253 

Burke, ^danus 258 

Burnett, Robert 401 

Byrd, William 31 

C 

Calvert, Leonard 223 

Calhoun, John C 326 

Cass, Lewis 464 

Canonicus 15 

Carroll. John 49 

Carroll, Charles 146 

Carver. Jonathan 74 

Cary, Lott 275 

Carey, P/Iatthew 300 

Caswell, Ri. hard 96 

Channing, AN'illiara E 373 

Chapjn, Edwin Hubbell 487 

Chauncey, Isaac 342 

Chittenden, Thomas 125 

Choate, Rufus 480 

Church, Benjamin 12 

Claiborne, William C. C 358 

Clarke. George R 138 

Clay,Henry 398 

Clinton, DeWitt 257 

Clinton, George 339 

Colden, Cad wallader 33 

Colburn, Zerah . . . 351 

Colles, Christopher 235 

Cooper, Peter 495 

Cooper, Thomas 239 

Cooper, James F 344 

Copley, John S 52 

Cornplanter 231 

Coxe, Tench 80 

Cniik, James 1 G4 

Crockett, David 311 

Cniger, Henry ... 2G0 

D 

Dana, Francis 92 

Davie, William R 89 

Davidson, Lucretia M 315 

Day, Stephen 11 

Deane, Silas 79 

Dearborn. Henry 328 

Decatur, Stephen 343 

De Kalb, Baron 291 

Dickenson. John 209 

Douglas, Stephen Arnold 444 

Downing, Andrew J 375 

Drayton, William H 86 

Dunlap, William 337 

Dwight, Timothy 107 



INDEX. 



PAGE 
E 

Edwards, Jonathan l'J'7 

Eliot, John 1"^ 

Ellsworth, Oliver 102 

Kmei-son. Ralpli Waldo 493 

Everett, Edward 420 

F 

Farragut, David Glascoe 481 

Ferguson, Catharine 404 

liliniore, Millard 4<i7 

Fitch, John f)3 

Firjt, 'iimothy 391 

Franklin, Lenjamin 39 

Franklin, William 129 

Francis, John W 431 

Frani is, John W. , Jr 407 

Fulton, Robert liJ5 

G-idsden, Christopher 109 

Galloway Josepli 72 

Gallatin, Albert 321 

Gallaudet Thomas H 381 

G;ii-liel(l. James Abruni 489 

GaiTison, William Lloyd 471 

Gaston, William 350 

Gates, Horatio 295 

Girard, Stephen 271 

Godfrey, Thomas 69 

Goodrich, Samuel Griswold 466 

Gordon , William 1C6 

Graham, Isabella 332 

Gray, William 214 

Greene, Nathaniel 59 

Greene, Joseph 130 

Greenough, Horatio 393 

Greeley. Horace 461 

Gridley, Richard 122 

Grundy, Felix 306 

H 

Habersham, Joseph 134 

Hale, Nathan 212 

Halleck, Fitz-Greene 450 

Hamilton, Alexander 213 

Hancock, John 159 

Harnett, Cornelius 83 

Harper, James 435 

Harrison, Benjamin 103 

Harrison, William H 240 

Harrington, Jonathan 376 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel 426 

Hayne, Robert Y 280 

Hedding, Elijah 382 

Henry, Joseph 477 

Henry, Patrick 126 

Henderson, Richard 180 

Hicks, Elias 268 

Holmes, Abiel 329 

Hooker, Thomas 26 

Hopkins. Samuel 240 

Hopkins, Stephen 320 

Hopkinson, Francis 57 

Hopkinson, Joseph 370 

Houston, Samuel 453 

Howard, John E 141 

Howe, Robert 173 

Hull, William 219 

Humphreys. David 215 

Hutchinson, Thomas 58 



PAGE 

I 

Inman, Henry 386 

Irving, Washington 416 

Izard, Ralph 282 

J 

Jackson, James 131 

Jackson, Andrew 244 

Jay, John 171 

Jefferson, Thomas 123 

Johnson, Andrew 469 

Johnson, Reverdy 479 

Johnson, Richard M 367 

Johnson, William 100 

Jones, J ohn Paul 95 

Jones. David 140 

Judson, Adoniram 364 

Judson, Ann H 368 

K 

Kent, James 335 

King, Ruf us 150 

Kinnison, DaA'id 403 

Kirkland, Samuel 66 

Knox, Heniy — 274 

KoECiusczko, Thaddeus SC6 

L 

La Fayette, M. de 287 

Lamb. John 263 

Langdon, John 154 

Laurens, Henry 161 

Lawrence, James 353 

Lawrence, Abbott 41 1 

Ledyard. John 82 

Lee, Ann 68 

Lee, Henry 152 

Lee, Richard H 186 

Lee, Charles 307 

Lee, Arthur 234 . 

Lee, Robert Edmund. . 474 

Legare, Hugh S 308 

Leisler. Jacob 64 

Lillington, John A 94 

Lincoln, Benjamin 298 

Lincoln, Abraham 432 

Livingston, Robert R 105 

Livingston, Edward 174 

Livingston, John H 200 

Longfellow, Heury W 491 

Lovel, John 97 

Lymaii, Phineas 113 

:m 

Macdonough, Thomas 323 

Macomb, Alexander 303 

M'Intosh. Lachlin ... 27 9 

M'Kean, Thomas 203 

Macon, Nathaniel 312 

Madison, James 2|:5 

Madison, James 20C 

Manly, John 114 

Marion, Francis lf"4 

Marshall, John 216 

Martin, Frangois X 243 

Mason, John 28 

Mather, Cotton 2< 

Mather, Increase 48 

Meigs, Return J 362 

Mercer, Hugh 396 

Miantonomoh 20 



INDEX. 



TAGE 

Mitchill, Samuel L 232 

Milnor, James 360 

Miller, William 387 

Monroe, James 304 

Montgomery, Richard 157 

Morgan, Daniel 223 

Morris, Robert 90 

Morris, Gouverneur 202 

Morris, George P •'^ 419 

Morse, Samuel Finley Breese 460 

Motley, John Lothrop 468 

Mott, Lucretia 484 

Motte, Rebecca 75 

Moultrie, William 262 

Muhlenberg, Peter 210 

Murray, Lindley 63 

N 

Nelson, Thomas, Jr Ill 

Newell, Harriet 285 

Nott, Eliphalet 429 

O 

Oglethorpe, James E 51 

Olin, Stephen 384 

Osceola 357 

Otis, James 162 

Otis, Harrison G 402 

P 

Paine, Thomas 228 

Paine, Robert Treat 440 

Patterson, Robert M 396 

Peabody, George 455 

Peale, Charles W 176 

Peirce, Benjamin 483 

Penn, William 24 

Perry, Oliver H 348 

Percival, James G 413 

Peters, Richard 109 

Phipps, William 21 

Philip, King 38 

Phihpse, Mary 227 

Physic, Phihp S 330 

Pickens, Andrew 194 

Pickering, Timothy 1C5 

Pierce, Benjamin 283 

Pierce, Franklin 447 

Pike, Zebulon M 191 

Pinckney , Charles C 143 

Pinckney , Thomas 230 

Pinkney, William 237 

Pocahontas 16 

Polk, James K 388 

Pontiac 70 

Porter, David 302 

Preble, Edward 199 

Prentiss, Sargeant S 397 

Prescott, William 175 

Prescott, William Hickling 454 

Putnam, Ruf us 182 

Putnam, Israel 226 

Q 

Qiiincy, Josiah 424 

Quittcy, Josiah, Jr 187 

R 

Ramsay, David 167 

Randolph, Peyton 84 



PAGE 

Randolph, Edmund 170 

Randolph, John 292 

Red Jacket 264 

R ed, Joseph 207 

Rittenhouse, David 35 

Rivington, James , 208 

Robinson, Edward 428 

Rodgers, John 372 

Rogers, Robert 77 

Ruggles, Timothy 73 

Rumford, Count 269 

Rush, Benjamin 78 

Rutledge, John .. 153 

S 

St. Clair 242 

Schoolcraft, Henry R 423 

Schuyler, Philip 189 

Scott, Winfield 436 

Seabury, Samuel 110 

Sears, Isaac 251 

Sevier, John 331 

Seward, William Henry 459 

Shelby, Isaac 98 

Sherman, Roger 168 

Silliman, Benjamin 442 

Simms, William Gilmore. 452 

Slater, Samuel 313 

Smith, John 34 

Smith, Samuel 324 

Sparks, Jared 443 

Spencer, Ambrose 392 

Spencer, John C 414 

Standish. Miles 13 

Stark, John 248 

Steuben, Baron De 144 

Stevens, Ebenezer 148 

Stevens, Robert L 415 

Stewart, C 439 

Stiles, Ezra 49 

Story, Joseph 289 

Stuart, Gilbert C 114 

Stuyvesant, Peter 22 

Sullivan, John 347 

Sumner, Charles 457 

Sumter, Thomas 236 

Swain, David L 430 

T 

Talbot, Silas 211 

Taylor, Bayard 473 

Taylor, Zachary 3.^j3 

Teifair, Edward 252 

Tennent, William 116 

Thacher, William 254 

Thomas. Isaiah 149 

Thomson, Charles 46 

Trumbull, Jonathan 43 

Trumbull, John 196 

Trumbull, John 259 

Tyler, John 426 

U 
Uncas 37 

V 

Van Buren, Martin 427 

Van Rensselaer, Stephen 260 

Vassar, Matthew 445 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

w 

Warren, Mercy 85 

Warren, Joseph 190 

Warner,Seth 206 

Washington, George 55 

Washington, Martha 119 

Wayland, Francis 418 

Wayne, Anthony 286 

Weare. Meshech 183 

Webster, Noah 224 

Webster, Daniel 5:76 

Weems, Mason L 112 

West, Benjamin 29 

Wheatley, Philips 249 

Wheaton, Henry 334 

Wheelock, Eleazer 32 

Wliite, William 53 

Wliitney, Eli 132 

Whipple, Abraliam 220 



PAGE 

Weiser, Conrad 251 

Williams, Roger 18 

Williamson, Hugh 156 

Willett, Marinus 247 

Willis, N. P 422 

Wilson, Alexander 181 

Wilson, Henry 463 

Winslow, Edward 23 

Winthrop, John 9 

Winthrop, John 44 

Wirt, William 218 

Witherspoon, John 179 

Wolcott, Oliver 238 

Wooster, David 322 

Woods. Leonard 390 

Wool, John E 438 

Wright, Silas 355 

Wright, Benjamin 363 

Wythe, George 278 



ADDITIONS TO THIS EDITK)N. 



PAGE 

Grant, Ulysses S 500 

Hancock, Winfiekl Scott 498 

TMoOIellan, Geo. B .504 

McCloskey, Cardinal 49: 



PAGE 

PhiLips, Wendell 503 

Seymour, Horatio 502 

Stephens, Alexander H 506 

'rilclen, Samuel J 508 




JOHN WINTHROP. 

THE Pilgrim Fathers' planted the seeds of the Plymouth Colony, amid the 
December snows, in 1620. Eight years afterward other emigrants, with 
John Endicott at their head, as governor, founded the colony of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay, at Salem. In 1629, John Winthrop, a wealthy Puritan, resolved 
to convert his large estate into money, and link his fortunes with this new 
colony. He was chosen to succeed Endicott, as governor, before he left England, 
and soon after his arrival in June, 1630, he chose the peninsula of Shawmut, on 



1. In the year 1608, John Robinson, a pious pastor of a flock in the norfh of England, who wonld not 
conform to the rituals of the Established Church, fled, with his people, to Holland, to avoid persecution. 
They felt that they were only Pilgrims, and assumed that name. Toward the close of 1620. about 100 
of them, including women and children, arrived on the shores of Cape C-1 Bay in the ship May Flower, 
and planted a colony where the town of Plymouth now stands. T^ey are known as The Pilgrirh 
Fathers. 



10 WILLIAM BREWSTER. 

5 ': 

which the city of Boston now stands, for a residence, because pure water gushed 
from its hills. There he founded the future metropolis of New England. i 

John Winthrop was born in Groton, Suflblk county, England, on the 12th of 
June, 1587, and was educated for the profession of the law. Theological studies 
possessed greater charms for him, and the pecuhar seriousness of his mind led 
him to Puritanism, 2 as he found it at the beginning of King Charles' reign. 
Because of his many admirable qualities, he was chosen governor under the 
charter granted in 1629, and was therefore really the first governor of Massa- 
chusetts, notwithstanding the earlier services of Endicott, as head of the actual 
settlers. 

Winthrop held his first court, composed of deputy -governor Dudley and mem- 
bers of the Council, on the 23d of August, 1630, under a large tree at Charles- 
town ; and the first topic brought under consideration was a suitable provision 
for the support of the gospel. Mr. Winthrop was a man of great benevolence. 
It was his practice to send his servants among the people at meal-time, on 
trifling errands, with instructions to report the condition of their tables. When 
informed of any who appeared to want, he always sent a supply from his own 
abundance. He was also merciful as a magistrate, for he considered it expe- 
dient to temper the severity of law with more lenity in an infant colony than in 
a settled state. Because of his lenity toward offenders, he was charged, in 1636, 
of dealing "too remissly in point of justice." The ministers decided that "the 
safety of the gospel " required more rigor ; and, contrary to the motions of his 
own liberal heart, he was obliged to yield. So zealous were the chief men of 
the colony in favor of rigorous disciphne, that deputy Dudley, a bigot of the 
strictest stamp, was chosen governor, in place of Winthrop, in 1634; but the 
latter was re-elected in 1637, and held the office of chief magistrate most of the 
time, until his death. 

Governor Winthrop came to America a wealthy man, but died quite poor. 
His benevolent heart kept his hand continually open, and he dispensed comforts 
to the needy, without stint. He regarded all men as equally dear in the eyes 
of their Maker, yet his early education blinded him to the dignity of true democ- 
racy. He regarded it with much disfavor ; and when the people of Connecticut 
asked his advice concerning the organization of a government, he replied, "The 
best part of a community is always the least, and of that least part the wiser 
are still less." He had little fliith in "the people." Worn out with toils and 
aQIictions, this faithful and upright magistrate entered upon his final rest on the 
26th of March, 1649, at the age of sixty -one years. 



WILLIAM BREWSTER. 

ONE of the noblest of the Pilgrim Fathers, was William Brewster, the spiritual 
guide of those who landed on Plymouth Rock, in bleak December, 1620. 
He was born in England in 1560, and was educated at Cambridge. Willam 
Davidson, Queen Elizabeth's ambassador to Holland, was his friend and patron 
in youth. When a wicked policy caused the Queen to disgrace and even de- 
stroy innocent men, Davidson, who had been appointed Secretary of State, was 
a great sufierer. Brewster, with a grateful loyalty, adhered to him as long as 

1. Boston was so named in honor of John Cotton, minister of Boston, England, who came to America 
in 1633, and was appointed teachei in the church in Winthrop's capital. , , r ^ 

2. Those who would not conform to the rituals of the Established Church of England, and professed 
ereat purity of life, as well as of doctrine, were called Puritans, in derision. It has since become an 
honorable title. 



STEPHEN DAY. 11 



he could serve lum, and then retired among his friends in the North of England. 
His religious zeal there burned brightly, and his hand and purse were ever open 
in well-doing. He finally became disgusted with the assumptions and tyranny 
of the Established Church, and joined a society of separatists, under the pastoral 
care of John Robinson. Mr. Brewster's house was their Sabbath meeting-place 
for worship ; and when, finally, these non-conformists were obliged to flee from 
hierarchical persecution, that good Christian attempted to leave friends and 
country, and follow. He was arrested, with others, and imprisoned at Boston, 
in Lincolnshire, in 1607 ; but as soon as he obtained his liberty, he sailed for 
Holland. His estate had become exhausted, and at Leyden he opened a school 
for instruction in the English language. He also established a printing-pi ess 
there, and published several books. 

Mr. Brewster was greatly beloved, and was chosen an elder in the church at 
Leyden, over which his old pastor presided. It was in that capacity that he 
sailed, with " the youngest and strongest" of Mr. Robinson's flock, in the May 
Flower, late in 1620. He suffered and rejoiced with the Pilgrims, in all their 
strange vicissitudes ; and for almost nine years, he was the only regular dis- 
penser of the Word of Life to the Puritans, in the little church at Plymouth. 
He preached twice every Sunday ; but could never be persuaded to administer 
the sacraments. It was in that church at Plymouth that the largest liberty was 
first granted to the laity. It was a common practice for a question to be pro- 
pounded on the Sabbath, and all who felt " gifted" were allowed to speak 
upon it. This liberty finally became a great annoyance to the ministers, and 
much difficulty ensued. It had free scope while Elder Brewster officiated, but 
when Rev. Ralph Smith was settled as pastor over the Plymouth church, he en- 
deavored to check it. Elder Brewster died on the 16th of April, 1644, at the 
age of eighty-three years. 



STEPHEN DAY. 

THE first printer who practiced his art within the domain of the United States 
was Stephen Day, a native of London, The Rev, Jesse Glover, one of the 
earliest patrons of Harvard College, presented that institution with a font of 
type, and others contributed money to buy a press. In 1638, Mr. Glover, then 
in London, engaged Day to accompany him to America, to take charge of the 
printing-house at Cambridge, Glover died on the voyage, but Day arrived in 
safety, with his patron's widow and children, and commenced work in January, 
1639. His first production was The Freeman^ s Oath; and soon afterward he 
printed an Almanac made by a mariner named Pierce, in which the year begins 
with March. The first hook — the first one printed in America — was the Psalms 
in Meter, containing three hundred pages, and was known as The Bay Psalm 
Book. He printed several Almanacs, and also some astronomical calculations by 
Urian Oakes, then a youth, and afterward President of Harvard College. 

Day was an unskilful printer ; yet, being the only one in the colony, he was 
so much esteemed, that the general court of Massachusetts granted him three 
hundred acres of land, in 1641. He frequently complained that his printing was 
unprofitable. He continued in the business until the beginning of 1649, when 
his establishment went into the hands of Samuel Greene, who came to Cam- 
bridge with his parents at the age of sixteen years. Greene continued the 
business until near the close of the century, and many writers have spoken of 
him as the first printer. Day expired at Cambridge, on the 22d of December, 
1068, at the age of about fifty-eight years. 



12 



BENJAMIN CHURCH. 




X^:;^^^'^::^;^^ 



BENJzVMIN CHURCH. 

"VTEXT to Miles Standish, the warrior-pilgrim of the May Flower, Benjamin 
ll Church was the most distinguished military hero in early New England 
history. He was born at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1639, and was instructed 
in the trade of a carpenter, by his father. He went to Duxbury to reside, and 
was pursuing his vocation there when King Philip's war broke out.' That great 
chief of the Wampanoags had long kept inviolate the treaty made with the 
white people by his father, Massasoit; but when provocations multiplied — when 
he saw spreading settlements reducing his domains, acre by acre, breaking up 
his hunting grounds, diminishing his fisheries, and menacing his nation with 
servitude or annihilation, — his patriotism was aroused, and he willingly listened 
to the hot young warriors around him, who counselled a war of extermination 
against the English. Philip struck the first blow at Swanzey, thirty-five miles 
south-west from Plymouth ; and for almost a year this dreadful war went on, 
and extended even to the valley of the Connecticut river. Nearly all of the 
New England tribes joined Philip in his enterprise. The white people banded, 
and struck the savages with vigorous blows in all directions. Among their 



1. Philip was a son of Massasoit, and he and his brother we-e naraed respectively Philip and Alex- 
ander, by the white people, in compliment to their brnvery. Because, after the death of his tathei, lie 
became chief sachem of his powerful tribe, he was called King Philip.— See page m. 



MILES STANDISH. 13 



leaders, Captain Church was the bravest of the brave ; and in the Spring of 16Y6 
he completely broke the power of the New England tribes. Almost three 
thousand Indians had been slain or had bowed in submission, and Philip was a 
hunted fugitive. He was chased from place to place, and refused to yield. He 
cleft the head of a warrior who dared to propose submission ; and a curse upon 
the white people was ever upon his lips. At length the "last of the Wampa- 
noags " was compelled to yield to the pressure of circumstances, He went 
stealthily back to the home of his fathers, at Mount Hope. Soon his wife and 
son were made prisoners, and his spirit drooped. "Now my heart breaks," 
said the brave warrior; "I am ready to die." A few days afterward a faithless 
Indian shot him, in a swamp, and Captain Church, with his own sword, cut off 
tlie dead sachem's head. Lacking the magnanimity of a true soldier, the pro- 
fessed Christian leader disfigured the senseless body, then quartered it, and hung 
it upon trees, declaring, " Forasmuch as he caused many an Englishman's 
body to lie unburied and rot above the ground, not one of his bones shall be 
buried." The chieftain's head was carried to Plymouth on a pole, where it was 
exposed for several years, and his right hand was sent to the governor of Mas- 
sachusetts. The rude sword of Church which cut off Philip's bead Is now a 
cherished relic in the library of the Historical Society of the "Old Bay State." 

If we censure Church's want of magnanimity as a soldier, what shall we say 
of the Christian charity of the Plymouth people in the disposal of King Philip's 
son. It was a subject for serious consideration. Some of the elders of tho 
church proposed putting him to death ; while the more merciful ones proposed 
to sell him into slavery in Bermuda. The most profitable measure appeared the 
kindest^ and the innocent child was sold mto perpetual bondage. 

Captain Church lived many years after the war, at difterent places in tho 
vicinity of Narraganset Bay, in Rhode Island. His last place of residence was 
Little Compton, where, on the 17 th of January, 1718, he was thrown from a 
horse. He was very corpulent, and the shock of his fall ruptured a blood 
vessel, which caused his death in the course of a few hours, at the age of seventy- 
aine years. 



MILES STANDISH. 

rHE " Hero of New England," as Captain Standish is called, was, like many 
other heroes and great men, rather diminutive in person. Hubbard, the his- 
^rian,.says, when speaking of him, "A little chimney is soon fired: so was the 
Plymouth captain, a man of very siiiall stature, yet of a very hot and angry 
temper," He was born in Lancashire, England, about the year 1584. He was 
a soldier by profession, and was serving in the Netherlands when Mr. Robinson, 
with his Pilgrim flock, settled at Leyden. There he joined the Puritans, and 
came with them to America, in the May Flower. When that vessel anchored in 
Cape Cod Bay, and it was thought expedient to explore the bleak shore to find 
a good landing-place, Standish was among the first to volunteer for the service. 
He was one of those who passed the first Christian Sabbath, after their arrival, 
in deep snow upon a barren island in Plymouth harbor; and he was the second 
man who stepped upon Plymouth Rock. 

Standish was very serviceable to the English when the Indians showed signs 
of hostility, and they relied much upon his military skill and personal bravery. 
Wherever the duties of his profession called him, there he was always found. 
Two years after the establishment of the Puritans at Plymouth, he was called to 



14 ISAAC ALLERTON. 

protect a new colony at Wissagusset (now Weymouth), who had exasperated 
the Indians by begging and stealing. They had been sent over by a weahhy 
London merchant, and most of them were quite unfit for the business of found- 
ing a state. The Indians resolved to destroy them ; but, through the agency 
of Massasoit, a firm friend of the Enghsh, the conspiracy was revealed to the 
Plymouth people in time for Captain Standish to march thither with a small 
company and avert the blow. When he arrived, his anger was fiercely kindled 
by the insolence of Pecksuot, the chief, and his few followers. Pecksuot 
sharpened his knife in the presence of Standish, and said, " Though you are a 
great captain, you are but a little man ; and though I be no sachem, yet I am 
a man of great strength and courage." Standish had the prudence to check 
his resentment ; but the next day, when the chief, and about the same number 
of his followers as Standish had with him, were m a room with the white 
people, the captain gave a signal, and five of the savages were slam. Standish 
snatched Pecksuot's knife from him, and with it slew its owner. When Mr. 
Robmson (the original pastor of the Pilgrims, and who remained in Holland) 
heard of this event, he wrote to the Church of Plymouth "to consider the dis- 
position of their captain, who was of a warm temper. He hoped that the Lord 
had sent him among them for good, if they used him right ; but he doubted 
whether there was not wanting that tenderness of the life of man, made after 
God's image, which was meet ; and he thought that it would have been happy 
if they had converted some before they had killed any." 

Captain Standish settled in Duxbury, Massachusetts, about 1631 ; and a place 
near his residence is still called Captain's Hill. During almost the whole time 
of his residence in the colony, he was an assistant magistrate. He died at his 
house in Duxbury, in the year 1656. 



ISAAC ALLEKTON. 

THE May Flower passengers may all be considered " distinguished Americans," 
because they left their birth-land forever, and became founders and citizens 
of a new empire in this Western World. Of the noble band who signed a con- 
stitution of government^ in the cabin of the May Flower, at Cape Cod, Isaac 
Allerton was the fifth to append his name to that instrument. He survived the 
terrors of the first winter in New England,'^ afterward became the agent of the 
settlers in negotiating the purchase of the new possessions from those of the 
company in London, who had furnished capital for the enterprise ;3 and, as an 
enterprising trader, became the founder of the commerce of New England. He 
established a trading post near the mouth of the Kennebeck, in 1627, and made 
several business voyages to England. He also established trading posts at 
Penobscot and Machias. In 1635, he opened a profitable trade with New Haven, 
New Amsterdam, Virginia, and even with the West Indies. He finally made 
New Amsterdam (now New York) his chief place of residence, and traded prin- 
cipally in tobacco. In 1643, when the English began to exert a considerable 
influence in the affairs of New Amsterdam, and a council of eight men repre- 
sented the people, Mr. Allerton was chosen to fill a seat in that body. 



1. The first written constitution adopted by a free people. 

2. Of the one hundred Pilgrims only forty survived. 

3. Some London merchants formed a partnership with the Pilgrims, and furnished capital for the 
enterprise. The service of each emigrant was valued as a capital of ten pounds, and all profits were 
reserved until the end of seven years. The community system did not work well, and at the end of the 
seven years, the settlers bought of the merchants their interest in the venture. 



CANONIC us. 15 



Mr. Allerton was accompanied in the May Flower by his wife and four chil- 
dren. His wife died soon after their arrival; and in 1627, he married Fear, a 
daughter of Elder Brewster, the spiritual guide of the Pilgrim adventurers.' 
She, also, died in 1634. He was again marrried, for we have an account of 
his shipwreck, with his wife, on the coast of Massachusetts, in 1644. The time 
and place of his death is not known, some asserting that he returned to England, 
and others that he died in the city of New Amsterdam (New York), in 1 659. 



CANONICUS. 

ONE of the most renowned sachems among the New England tribes was 
Canonicus, the head of the Narragansets when the Pilgrim Fathers found- 
ed New Plymouth. He regarded the advent of the white men with a jealous 
fear; and in 162*2, feeling strong, with about five thousand fighting men around 
him, he sent a challenge to Governor Bradford, of the Plymouth colony, not- 
withstanding Massasoit, the chief sachem of the "Wampanoags, was the friend 
of the Enghsh. His token of defiance was a bundle of arrows, tied with a 
snake skin. Bradford sagaciously filled the skin with powder and ball, and 
sent it back to Canonicus. The chief had never seen the like before, and he 
regarded these substances with superstitious awe. They were sent from village 
to village, and excited so much alarm, that the sachem sued for peace, and made 
a treaty of friendship, which he never violated ; notwithstanding, he often re- 
ceived provocations that would have justified him in scattering all compacts to 
the winds. 

When Roger Williams became an exile from Massachusetts, he found a friend 
in Canonicus, who gave him all the land in the vicinity of Providence, for a set- 
tlement. Williams found more love and generous sentiment in the heart of that 
forest monarch than among his own countrymen at Boston. When the Pequot 
war broke out in 1637, Canonicus stood firmly in defence of the English; and 
a deputation from Massachusetts, who appeared before his island throne opposite 
Newport, were received with- friendly assurances. His palace was a building 
fifty feet in length, made of upright poles, covered with branches and mats. 
The royal dinner given to the ambassadors consisted of boiled chestnuts for 
bread, plenty of venison, and a dessert of boiled pudding made of pounded In- 
dian corn, well filled with whortle-berries. After again assuring the ambassadors 
of his friendly intentions, he advised the Pequots to bury the hatchet. They 
refused to listen, and were utterly destroyed by the combined forces of the Eng- 
lish, the Narragansets, the Mohegans, and the Niantics. 

In 1638, Canonicus began to feel the infirmities of age, and resigned his gov- 
ernment into the hands of his nephew, Miantonomoh. That chief was afterward 
made a prisoner by Uncas, " the last of the Mohegans," and murdered by the 
consent of the English. The resentment of Canonicus was aroused, and he could 
hardly be restrained from declaring war against the white people. Prudent 
counsels prevailed in his cabinet, and peace was maintained. In the beautiful 
month of June, 1647, this "wise and peaceable prince," as Williams calls him, 
died at his seat on Conannicut Island, opposite Newport, at the age of eighty- 
five years. 



1. The practice of the Puritans of giving their children the names of moral qualities, was exemplified 
in Brewster's family. His two daughters were named respectively Fear and Love ; and his son's name 
was Wrestling. 



16 



POCAHONTAS. 




POCAHONTAS. 

" She was a soft landscape of mild earth. 
Where all was harmony and calm quiet, 
Luxuriant, budding." Byron. 

SUCH was the sweet little Indian gii'l, the favorite daughter of the powerful 
Emperor of tlie Powhatan Confederacy' in Virginia, when the white people 
laid the foundations of a new empire there. When a site for a settlement was 
chosen, Captain Smith, the boldest of those early adventurers, penetrated the 
interior, and was taken prisoner. His captor carried him in triumph from vil- 
lage to village, and then presented him to the Emperor, in his forest palace at 
Werowocomoco. Smith was condemned to die. With his arms pinioned, and 
his head upon a huge stone, he was doomed to have his brains dashed out by a 
blow from a club. When the executioner advanced, Pocahontas, then a girl 
ten or twelve years of age, leaped from her father's side, where she sat trem- 
bling, clasped the head of Smith in her arms, and implored his life. 

' How could that stem old king deny 
The angel pleading in her eye? 
How mock the sweet, imploring grace, 
That breathed in beauty from her face, 
And to her kneeling action gave 

A power to soothe, and still subdue, 
Until, though humble as a slave, 
To more than queenly sway she grew?" — Simms. 

The Emperor yielded, and Smith was spared. 



1. This was a confederacy of more than twenty Indian tribes in the vicinity of the James, York and 
Potomac rivers. Powhatan was not the family name of the fathar of. Pocahontas, but the title of the 
emperor, the same as the title of Pharaoh, for the Egyptian kings, in the time of the Jewish bondage. 



JOHN ELIOT. 17 



Two years after this event, the Indians formed a conspiracy to exterminate 
the white people. Again Pocahontas became an angel of deliverance. During 
a dark and stormy night she left her father's cabin, sped lo Jamestown, informed 
Smith of his danger, and was back to her couch before dawn. It was no won- 
der that the English regarded the Indian princess with great esteem ; and yet, 
when Smith had left the colony, and indolence and licentiousness had full sway, 
that gentle girl was ruthlessly torn from her kindred, and held a prisonei- on 
board of an English vessel. Argall, a rough, half-piratical mariner, desirous of 
extorting advantageous terms of peace from her father, bribed a savage, by the 
gift of a copper kettle, to betray her into his hands. Powhatan loved his child 
tenderl}^, and offered five hundred bushels of corn, and a promise of friendship 
toward the English, for her ransom. But other bonds, more holy than those of 
Argall, now detained her. While on the ship, a mutual attachment had budded 
and blossomed between her and John Rolfe, a fine young Englishman, of good 
family. With the consent of her flither, Pocahontas received Christian baptism, 
with the title of "the Lady Rebecca," and she and her lover were married. 

In 1616, Pocahontas accompanied her husband to England, where she was 
received at Court with all the distinction due to a princess. But the silly 
bigot on the throne was highly indignant because one of his subjects had dared to 
marry a lady of royal Mood, and absurdly apprehended that Rolfe might lay 
claim "to the crown of Virginia!" Afraid of the royal displeasure. Captain 
Smith, who was then in England, would not allow her to call h\m father^ as she 
desired to do. She could not comprehend the cause ; and her tender, simple 
heart was greatly grieved by what seemed to be his want of affection for her. 
She remained in England about a year ; and when ready to embark for America 
with her husband, she was taken sick, and died at Gravesend, in the flowery 
month of June, 1617, when not quite twenty-two years of age. She left one 
son, Thomas Rolfe, who afterward became quite a distinguished man in Vir- 
ginia. His only child was a daughter, and fiom her some of the leading fam- 
ilies in Virginia trace their descent. Among these were the Boilings, Hem- 
mings, Murrays, Guys, Eldridges and Randolphs. The late John Randolph, of 
Roanoke, boasted of his descent from the Indian princess. 



JOHN ELIOT. 

CREx\.T efforts have been made from time to time to Christianize portions of 
the aboriginals of our country, but none have been more successful than 
those put forth during the early days of New England settlements, by one who 
has been justly termed the Apostle to the Indians. John Eliot was born in 
Essex county, England, in 1604. He was educated at the university of Cam- 
bridge, and was engaged in school teaching for several years. He became a 
gospel minister; and in 1631, arrived at Boston, and commenced ministerial 
labors there. He was afterward associated with Mr. Wilde at the head of a 
congregation in Roxbury ; and these, with Richard Mather, were appointed, m 
1639, to make a new metrical version of the Psalms. 

Looking out upon the dusky tribes around him, the heart of Mr. Eliot was 
troubled by a view of their spiritual destitution, and he resolved to preach the 
gospel among those heathen neighbors. The twenty tribes known to the Eng- 
lish spoke a similar language, and when he had mastered it sufficient to be un- 
derstood by them, he began his labors. His first sermon was preached to them 



18 KOGER WILLIAMS. 



in the present town of Newton, in October, 1646. He saw blossoms of promise 
at that lirst gathering, and very soon fruit appeared, to his great joy. Although 
violently opposed by the Indian priests, whose "craft was in danger," and also 
by some of the sachems and chiefs, he was not dismayed, bai penetrated the 
deep wilderness in all directions, relying solely upon his God for protection. 
Finally, an Indian town was built at Natick, and a house of worship, the first 
for the use of the Indians ever erected by Protestants in x\merica,^ was reared 
there in 1660. Many received the rites of baptism and the Lord's Supper, after 
being thoroughly instructed in religious doctrines and duties. 

Mr. Eliot translated the New Testament into the Indian language, and pub- 
lished it in 1661 ; and in the course of a few years he established several con- 
gregations among these children of the forest, extending even as far as Cape 
Cod. He obtained unbounded influence over them ; and he was also their pro- 
tector when, during King Philip's war, the Massachusetts people wished to 
exterminate the Indians, without discrimination. It was estimated that there 
were five thousand "praying Indians," as the converts were called, among the 
New England tribes, when Philip raised the hatchet. 

When the weight of fourscore years bowed the pious apostle, and he could 
no longer visit the Indian churches, he persuaded a number of families to send 
their negro servants to him to be instructed in Gospel truth, and thus he labored 
for benighted minds, until the last. With the triumphant words, " welcome joy," 
upon his lips, the venerable and faithful servant died, on the 20th of May, 1690, 
at the age of eighty -six years. 



ROaER WILLIAMS. 

THE annunciation of new theories, whether in science, government, religion, 
or ethics, which clash with prevailing dogmas, is always met with scofls 
and frowns, if not with actual persecution. The stand-point of reformers is 
always in advance of current ideas, and the true value of such men can only be 
appreciated when their labors have ceased, and they are sleeping with the dead. 
To such a character we turn when we contemplate Roger Williams, the great 
champion of toleration, and of private judgment in religious matters. He was 
born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. He was a minister in the 
Church of England for a short time, but his independent principles soon led him 
to non-conformity, and he came to America to indulge in the free exercise of 
liis opinions. He arrived in February, 1631, and in April following, he was 
chosen assistant minister at Salem. His extreme views concerning entire sep- 
aration from the Church of England were not palatable to many of his brethren : 
and his asserted independence of the magistracy in religious matters drew upon 
him the condemnation of that entire class and their friends. He left Salem and 
went to Plymouth in 1632; but, on the death of the minister at the former 
place, he returned there, and took sole charge of the congregation, in 1634. 
There he proclaimed his peculiar views with more vehemence than ever ; and 
in his excessive zeal for toleration, and individual liberty of thought and action, 
he became as intolerant as his opposers, without their excuse of care for the 
stability of the church and civil government. He asserted that an oath ought 
not to be administered to an unregenerate man ; that a Christian ought not to 

1. French Jesuits had already established missionary stations- on the St. Lawrence, and even on the 
borders of the great lakes. - 



ROGER WILLIAMS. 



19 




crayct Wj^^^'>ry) 




pray with an unregenerate man; that "grace" at table ought to be omitted; 
and having formed a separate congregation, he even refused to commune with 
members of his own church who did not separate entirely from all connection 
with the "polluted New England churches." He finally declared the Massa- 
chusetts charter void, because the land had not been purchased from the Indians, 
and "reviled magistrates," The general court passed a sentence of banishment 
against him in 1G35, and early in January, 1636, he left the colony for the wil- 
derness toward Narraganset Bay, to avoid being seized and sent to England, 
After severe trials and hardships, he purchased lands from the Indians at the 
head of Narraganset Bay, and there founded a town, and named it Providence. 
lie offered a free asylum to all persecuted people, and many joined him there. 
Time mellowed his extreme opinions, and he became a pattern of toleration, 
lie also became a Baptist ; and when he formed a civil government, it was 
purely democratic. He, as the head, had no privileges but those which were 
common to all. He labored zealously for the spiritual and temporal good of the 
Indians; and in 1643 he went to England to obtain a royal charter. Already 
other settlements of his friends had been made on Rhode Island.' In the spring 
of 1644, a free charter of incorporation was granted, and these several settle- 
ments were united under the title of the Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 



1. Tho Indian name waT Agnidfi, or A quitneck. It was named Rhode Island because of tlio red c oloi' 
of its mai-dhy shore, produced by cranberries. The Dutch caUed it Roodt Eylandt, 



20 MIANTONOMOH. 



tions. He again went to England in 1651, as Sgent for the colony, where he 
remained until 1654. On his return he was made president of the colon}^, in 
which office he was succeeded, in 1657, by Benedict Arnold. 

Roger Williams was an eminent peace-maker between the white people and 
the Indians, and on two occasions he no doubt saved those who banished him 
to the wilderness, from utter destruction. While all sects were permitted to 
enjoy entire freedom within his domains, he was fierce in controversy against 
the Quakers. In 1672, he held a public dispute with leaders of that sect at New- 
port, for three days, and one day at Providence, an account of which he after- 
ward published, under the title of " George Fox digged out of his Burrows." A 
preacher, named Burroughs, was one of the disputants in favor of the principles 
of Fox. 

Roger WiUiams died at Providence, in April, 1683, aged eighty-four years. 
Ilis name is cherished as the first founder of a state in the New World, where 
freedom to worship God according to the dictates of the individual conscience, 
was made an ore:anic law. 



MIANTONOMOH. 

ONE of the most renowned of the warriors of the New England Indians, was 
Miantonomoh, sachem of the Narragansets, and nephew and successor of 
Canonicus. He took a share in the government of his aged uncle, in 1636, and 
was the warm friend and benefactor of the first settlers of Rhode Island. He 
joined Captain Mason against the Pequods in 1637 ; and the following year he 
was associated with Uncas, the chief sachem of the Mohegans, in a treaty of 
peace and friendship with the English at Hartford The two sachems agreed 
not to make war upon each other, Mdthout first appealing to the English. An 
occasion soon appeared. Uncas was the aggressor; and by the consent of the 
governor at Hartford, Miantonomoh, at the head of eight hundred warriors, 
marched into the Mohegau country. A severe battle ensued on a great plain 
near Norwich. By stratagem Uncas gained the victory, and Miantonomoh was 
made a prisoner, with one of his brothers, and two sons of Canonicus. They 
were sent to Hartford, and the English were asked to decide what should be 
done with the royal prisoner. The question was referred to an ecclesiastical 
tribunal, consisting of five of the principal ministers of New England. They 
decided to hand him over to Uncas for "execution without torture,'' within the 
dominions of that sachem. It was an ungenerous and wicked decision, for 
Miantonomoh had ever been a firm friend of the Enghsh, without the selfish 
incentives that governed Uncas. But just then, a covetous desire to porscss 
the land of Uncas made them willing to secure his favor, even by so foul a pro- 
cedure. Delighted with the verdict of his Christian allies, the equally savage 
Mohegan, with a few trusty followers, conducted Miantonomoh to the spot where 
he was captured, near Norwich, and there a brother of Uncas stepped up behind 
the unsuspecting victim and cleft his head with a hatchet. The noble Mian- 
tonomoh was buried where he was slain ; and to this day the locality is called 
Sachem's Plain. This transaction aroused the fierce ire of the Narragansets 
against the English, and they had the sympathy of the surrounding tribes. 
Hatred of the Enghsh and of their boasted Christianity, became deep-rooted, 
and was one of the principal causes which led to the bloody contest known as 
King Philip's war, about thirty years later, Miantonomoh was about forty-four 
years of age at the time of his death. 



WILLIAM PHIPPS. 21 



^VILLIAM PHIPPS. 

" /CIRCUMSTANCES make men what they are," is a general truth which. 

V few persons of observation will deny. William Phipps illustrated the 
truth in his life and character, in an eminent degree. He was born in the then 
flir-off wilderness at Pemaquid, now Bristol, in the state of Maine, on the 2d of 
February, 165L His father was a gun-smith, and migrated to America, with 
Winthrop's party, in 1630, William was the tenth of twenty-six children by 
the same mother. He lived in the wilderness until he was eighteen years 
of ago, without any special aim for life. Then he was apprenticed to a ship 
carpenter for four years. At the expiration of his minority and servitude he 
went to Boston, and there, for the first time, studied reading and writing. 
Charmed with the tales of seamen, among whom his business cast his lot, he 
resolved to seek his fortunes on the ocean. He left Boston when he was twenty- 
four years of age, and after many adventures and hardships, he discovered a 
Spanish wreck on the coast of St. Domingo, and from it fished up pearls, plate, 
and jewels, to the value of a million and a half of dollars. With this treasure 
he sailed for England, where he divided the booty so equitably among the sea- 
men, that his own share amounted to only eighty thousand dollars. That was 
a large fortune for the time ; and James the Second was so much charmed by 
the talent and general character of Phipps, that he knighted him. Three years 
afterward he returned to Boston, where he took rank in the best society. 

In 1690, Sir William Phipps commanded an expedition against Port Royal, 
in the French territory of Acadie, now Nova Scotia. His expedition comprised 
eight or nine vessels, and about eight hundred men. He seized Port Royal, 
brought Acadie into subjection, and obtained sufficient property, by plundering 
the people, to pay the expenses of the enterprise. This success encouraged the 
New England colonies to coalesce with New York in efforts to subdue Canada, 
then held by the French. Sir William commanded a naval expedition against 
Quebec, which Massachusetts alone fitted out. He sailed from Boston with 
thirty-four vessels and a thousand men, reached Quebec in safety, and landed 
his troops; but the strength of the city, and the lack of cooperation on the part 
of the land troops, caused him to abandon the undertaking and return home. 
He was soon afterward sent to England to solicit aid in further warfare against 
the French and Indians. He also asked for the restoration of the old charter of 
Massachusetts, taken away by Andros.' Aid for war was refused; and King 
William, instead of restoring the old charter, granted a new one, under which 
Sir William was appointed the first governor, by the king, on the nomination 
of Increase Mather. He arrived at Boston in May, 1692, and was instrumental 
in stopping prosecutions for witchcraft, then in fearful activity in the colony.2 
The same year he went to Pemaquid, with four hundred and fifty men, and 
built a fort there. He was removed from office in 1694, when he went to Eng- 
land, and received positive promises of restoration. But death soon closed his 
career. He died in London, on the 18th of February, 1695, at the age of forty- 
four years. 

1. Edmimi Andios was sent to New England, by James the Second, to take away the several charters 
of ihe colonies, and consolidate the whole under one government, with himself at the head as the direct 
representative of royalty. The revolution of 1688, drove James from the throne, and placed William of 
Orange and his wife, Mary, there. It was to William that Phipps appealed for the restoration of the 
charters taken away by Andros. The new charter was lot so acceptable to the people as the old one. 

2. See sketch of Dr Mather. 



22 



PETER STUYVESANT. 




PETER S T U Y V E S AN T , 

THE founding of the great commercial citj of New York was the work of 
beaver-huntiug Hollanders, at a time when ships from the Zuyder-Zee were 
in the far-distant waters of the East Indies, and the navies that sailed from the 
Texel were mistresses of the- ocean. Holland then controlled the commerce of 
the world. A company was chartered to plant trading stations in the region 
discovered hy Henry Hudson,' and when settlements were established there, 
governors were sent to administer political rule. Of the five employed at dif- 
ferent times by the company, Peter Stuyvesant was the ablest and the last. He 
was a son of a clergyman in Friesland, where he was born in 1602, and was edu- 
cated for the ministry in the High School at Franeker. There he acquired a 
knowledge of Latin, with which he played the pedant in after life. Liking the 
military art better than theology, he entered the army, and rose to distmction 



1. Hudson discovered the Bay of New York and the river bearing his name, at the close of the Sum- 
mar of 1609. He was then in the service of the Dutch East India Company. 



EDWARD WINSLOW. 23 

on account of his bravery. His talent commended him to the Dutch West India 
Company/ and he was appointed its first director, or governor, of Curagoa. 

In 1644, Stuyvesant led an expedition against the Portuguese on the island 
of St. Martin, and lost a leg in an engagement there. He went to Holland for 
surgical aid, and soon afterward he received the appointment of first director of 
the province of New Netherland, as the Dutch possessions on the Hudson were 
called. He arrived at New Amsterdam (now New York) in May, 164*7. He 
found everything in confusion, and the seeds of democracy growing rapidly, be- 
cause of the tyrannous and dishonest rule of his predecessor. Stuyvesant was 
an aristocrat, and his profession made him an iron man, as a ruler. He at once 
commenced much-needed reforms, and declared his honest desire to improve the 
condition of the people ; but he told them frankly that he considered it " treason 
to petition against one's magistrates, whether there be cause or not." Governed 
by such sentiments, he ruled vigorously for almost twenty years. He destroyed 
the power of a growing Swedish colony on the Delaware,- settled boundary dis- 
putes with the English in Connecticut, and by conciliatory measures made the 
Indians so friendly, that the New England people believed the silly story that 
he was leagued with the savages to destroy the Puritans. 

When Charles the Second was restored to the throne of his fathers, he gave 
the territory of New Netherland to his brother James, Duke of York. The 
duke sent a fleet to take possession.^ Stuyvesant yielded with great reluctance; 
and in September, 1664, New Amsterdam was surrendered to the English, and 
was named New York. Stuyvesant retired to his bouerie or farm, near the 
East River, where he lived in dignity and quiet until August, 1682, when he 
died. His wife was Ruth Bayard, a Huguenot. Their remains he m a vault 
under St. Mark's Church, in the city of New York. 



EDWARD WINSI.OW. 

ONE of the most accomplished men who came to America in the May Flower, 
was Edward Winslow, a native of Worcestershire, England, where he was 
born on the 19th of October, 1595. Whilst travelling in Europe, he became 
acquainted, at Leyden, with the Rev. John Robinson, the pastor of the Pilgrims 
there. He joined that church in 161*7, married a young lady there, and made 
Leyden his place of residence until his departure for America. He was one of 
the companions of Miles Standish in the search for a landing-place for the May 
Flower passengers ; and being a young man of great energy, he became one of 
the most useful men in the colony. Massasoit became much attached to him ; 
and in 1623, hearing of the severe illness of that sachem, Wmslow visited him, 
and by the skilful use of some medicines, restored him to health, and won his 
unbounded gratitude. On that occasion, as on many others, the brave young 
Hobbomac, one of Massasoit's warriors, who lived with the white people, was 
guide and interpreter. In the following Autumn, Mr. Winslow went to England 
as an agent for the colony ; and the next Spring he returned, and mtroduced 

1. This company was formed after the discoveries of Hudson, and was invested with almost vice-regal 
powers for carrying on trade and making settlements in America and on the coast of Atnca. 

2. Peter Minuit, an offended director of the Dutch West India Company, went to Sweden and proposed 
to lead a colony of Swedes to the New World. A Swedish West India. Company -^sii^ formed ; ana m the 
Spring of 1638, Minuit and a considerable number of settlers located upon the Delaware, on the site oi 
the present New Castle. They called the country New Sweden, and proposed to establish a provincial 
government, but the more powerful Dutch overthrew all their plans, and the colonists became subjects 

%. 'p^gIaDd*'claimed all America from Newfoundland to Florida, by virtue of early coast explorations. 



24 WILLIAM PENN. 



the first cattle into New England.^ He made voyages to England and other 
places for the benefit of the Plymouth colony, and for private commercial pur- 
suits; and, in 1633, was elected governor. Twice, subsequently, he was elected 
chief magistrate of the colony, when Bradford declined serving, and always per- 
formed his duties with great satisfaction to his constituents. He made many 
coast voyages, even as far south as Manhattan, for trading purposes ; and in 
1635, went to England again, when, on a charge of performing illegal clerical 
services at Plymouth, made by the mendacious Thomas Morton, he was impris- 
oned four months. There, and during a subsequent visit to his native country, 
he was active in founding a society for propagating the gospel in New England, 
which was incorporated in 1649. He was so highly esteemed in his nativG 
country, that public employments were thrust upon him, and he never returned 
to America. He was appointed a commissioner to determine the amount of tho 
restitution to be made to England, by Denmark, for marine spoliations ; and in 
1655, Cromwell appointed him the first of three commissioners to superintend 
an expedition against the Spaniards in the West Indies, in which admiral Penn, 
father of William, was a conspicuous actor. Governor Winslow accompanied 
the expedition. It failed to accomphsh its object ; and while the fleet was 
passing between the islands of St. Domingo and Jamaica, he died of a fever, on 
the 8th of May, 1655, at the age of sixty years. Mr. Winslow's wife was among 
those of the May Floiver, who died during the Winter and Spring of 1621. 
William White also died at about the same time, and within two months after- 
ward Winslow and White's widow were married. This was the first marriage 
of Europeans in New England. Mrs. Winslow was not only the first bride, 
but the mother of the first white child born in New England, her son. Peregrine 
White, having been born on board the May Floioer while that vessel lay an- 
chored in Cape Cod Bay. 



WILLIAM PENN. 

IN glorious contrast with the inhumanity of Spaniards, Frenchmen, and many 
Englishmen, stands the record on History's tablet of the kindness and jus- 
tice toward the feeble Indian, of the founder of Pennsylvania. 

" Thou'lt find," said the Quaker, " in me and mine, 
But friends and brothers to thee and to thine, 
Who abuse no power, and admit no line 

'Twixt the red man and the white." 
And bright was the spot where the Quaker came 
To leave his hat, his drab, and his name, ^ 
That will sweetly sciund from the trump of Fame, 

'Till its final blast shall die.— Hannah F. Gocld, 

William Penn was bom in the city of London, on the 14th of October, 1644, 
and was educated at Oxford. His father was the eminent admiral Penn, a great 
favorite of royalty. William was remarkable, in earl}^ youth, for brilliant talent 
and unaflected piety. While yet a student he heard one of the new sect of 
Quakers preach, and, with other students, became deeply impressed with the 
evangelical truths which they uttered. He, with several others, withdrew from 
the Established Church, worshipped by themselves, and for non-conformity were 
expelled from the college. Penn's father sought, in vain, to reclaim him ; and 
when, at length, he refused to take oft' his hat in the presence of the admiral, and 

1. Horses were not introduced until 16-14. People rode on bulls. Historj- and poetry Imve erroneously asserted 
that when John Aldeu went to marry Priscilla MuUins.he covered a bull with a piece of handsome cloth, and on 
his return he seated the bride on the bull and gallantly led the animal himself. 



WILLIAM PENN. 



25 




even of the king, he was expelled from the parental roof. He was sent to gay 
France, where he becamf^ a polished gentleman after a residence of two years; 
and on his return he studied law in London until the appearance of the great 
plague in 1665. He was sent to Ireland in 1666, to manage an estate there 
belonging to his father, but was soon recalled, because he associated with Qua- 
kers. Again expelled from his father's house, he became an itinerant Quaker 
(preacher, made many proselytes, suffered revilings and imprisonments " for 
conscience sake," and at the age of twenty-four years, wrote his celebrated 
work, entitled No Gross, no Grown, while in prison because of his non-conformity 
to the Church of England. He was released in 1670, and soon afterward be- 
came possessor of the large estates of his father, who died that year. He con- 
tinued to write and preach in defence of his sect, and went to Holland and 
Germany, for that purpose, in 1677. 

In March, 1681, Penn procured from Charles the Second, a grant of the terri- 
tory in America which yet bears his name; and two years afterward he visited 
the colony which he had established there. He founded Philadelphia — city of 
brotherly love — toward the close of the same year; and within twenty-four 
months afterward, two thousand settlers were planting their homes there. Penn 
returned to England in 1684, and through his influence with the king, obtained 



THOMAS HOOKER. 



the release of thirteen hundred Quakers, then in prison. Because of his personal 
friendship toward James, the successor of Charles (who was driven from the 
throne by the revolution of 1688, and had his place filled by his daughter, Mary, 
and William, Prince of Orange), he was suspected of adherence to the follen 
monarch, and was imprisoned, and deprived of his proprietary rights. These 
were restored to him in 1694; and in 1699, he again visited his American colony. 
He remained in Pennsylvania until 1701, when he hastened to England to cp- 
pose a parliamentary proposition to abolish all proprietary governments in 
America. He never returned. In 1712, he was prostrated by a paralytic dis- 
order. It terminated his life on the 30th of July, 1718, at the age of sevcnty- 
ibur years. Penn was greatly beloved by the Indians ; and it is worthy of 
remark that not a drop of Quaker's blood was ever shed by the savages. 



THOMAS HOOKER. 

THE true heroes of America are those who, from time to time, have left the 
comforts of civilized life and planted the seeds of new states deep in the 
■wilderness. Among the remarkable men of that stamp was the Reverend 
Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and one of the 
pioneer settlers in Connecticut. He was born in Leicestershire, England, in 
1586, and was educated in Emanuel College, Cambridge. He began his labors 
as a Christian minister at about the time of the death of James the First, when 
Archbishop Laud began to harass the non-conformists. In 1630, Mr. Hooker 
was silenced, because of his non-conformity to the Established Church, and he 
founded a grammar school at Chelmsford. His influence was great; and falling 
under the ban of Laud, he was obliged to fly to Holland, w'here he became an 
assistant minister to Dr. Ames, both at Delft and Rotterdam. He came to 
America with the Reverend Mr. Cotton, in 1633, and was made pastor of the 
church at Cambridge in the Autumn of that year. 

In 1636, this "light of the western churches," with other ministers, their 
families and flocks, in all about one hundred, left the vicinity of Boston for the 
Connecticut valley, where the English had already planted settlements. It was 
a toilsome journey through the swamps and forests. They took quite a number 
of cows with them. These browsed upon the shrubs and grazed in swamp 
borders, and their milk afforded subsistence for the wanderers. The journey 
was made in the pleasant month of June, and on the 4th of July they reached 
the flowery banks of the Connecticut, and received the hearty greetings of wel- 
come of the little band of settlers who were seated on the site of the present 
city of Hartford. There, in the little meeting-house already built, Mr. Hooker 
preached when the Sabbath came, and administered the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper to all. A greater portion of Mr. Hooker's followers settled at Hartford, 
while some chose Wethersfield for a residence; and others, from Roxbury,went 
up the river twenty miles, and founded Springfield. 

Mr. Hooker was one of the most powerful preachers of his time, and wrote 
much and well, on religious subjects. While preaching in the great church of 
Leicester, before he left England, one of the magistrates of the town sent a 
fiddler to the church-yard to disturb the worship. Mr. Hooker's powerful voice 
not only drowned the music, but it attracted the fiddler to the church door. He 
listened to the great truths uttered, and became converted. Mr. Hooker was a 
man of great benevolence, and in every sphere of life he was emmently useful 
He died at Hartford, of an epidemic fever, on the 7th of July, 1647, at the age 
of sixty-one years. 



COTTON MATH'S'^' 



27 




COTTON MATHER, 



SOME of the early New England divines, as well as the magistrates, were es° 
ceedingly superstitious, while their piety and general good sense could not 
be doubted. .Cotton Mather, one of the earliest of American-born clergymen, 
was a pro!ninent specimen of the kind of men alluded to. He was born in 
Boston, on the 12th of February, 1663, and was educated at Harvard College, 
where he was graduated at the early age of sixteen years. He was so expert 
in learning, that before he was nineteen years old, the degree of Master of Arts 
was conferred upon him, by the college. At the age of twenty-two years, he 
was ordained a gospel minister, and became the assistant of his father, Increase 
Mather. Preaching and authorship were the joint professions of his life, and he 
excelled all others, of his time, in both. He became master of several languages, 
and was considered a prodigy of learning. He held a fluent pen, yet his writ- 
ings were not fitted for immortality. They lacked solidity and that true genius 
which is undying. Many of his productions are already forgotten, and none but 
his Magnolia will probably " live forever.'' Its extravagances form its chief 
element of vitality. With all his learning, Dr. Mather was a man of narrow 
views, a conceited heart, and unsound judgment. He was a firm believer in 
witchcraft, and probably did more than any other man to promote the spread of 
that fearful delusion, known in history as Salem Witchcraft'. He wrote a book 

1. A belief in witchcraft was almost universal, at that time. It had produced terrible tragedies on tlio 



28 JOHN MASON. 



on the subject, and stimulated the authorities t(f prosecute all suspected persons. 
Several years before, his father had published an account of all the supposed 
cases of witchcraft in New England, under the title of "Remarkable Provi- 
dences," which directed public attention to the subject. After the delusion had 
passed away, Cotton Mather's credulity was exposed by a man named Calef, in 
a series of letters. Mather sneered at him at first, but when Calef laid his blows 
on thick and fast, the Doctor called him "a coal from hell," and prosecuted him 
for slander. The suit was wisely withdrawn. 

With all his vagaries and folly. Dr. Mather exhibited much good sense. Dr 
Franklin has thus illustrated the fact, in a letter to Mr. Mather's son, Samuel, 
whose house and fine library were consumed at Charlestown during the battle 
on Breed's Hill, in 1775. "The last time I saw your father was in the begin- 
ning of 1724, when I visited him after my first trip to Pennsyh^ania. He re- 
ceived me in his library; and on my taking leave, showed me a shorter way out 
of the house through a narrow passage, which was crossed by a beam overhead. 
We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turning 
partly towards him, when he said hastily, 'Stoop! stoop!' I did not under- 
stand him until I feltmy head hit against the beam. He was a man that never 
missed an occasion of giving instruction, and upon this he said to me, ' You are 
young, and have the world before you ; stoop as you go through it, and you 
will escape many hard thumps.' This advice, thus beat into my head, has fre- 
quently been of use to me; and I often think of it when I see pride mortified, 
and misfortunes brop.ght upon people by carrying their heads too high." 

Cotton Mather married three times, and had fifteen children. He died on the 
13th of February, 1728, at the age of sixty-five years. 



JOHN MASON. 

MILES STANDISH is called the "hero of New England" because of priority. 
There were other men of that olden time who were greater " heroes " than 
he, when measured by the common standard. John Mason was a greater 
"hero" than Standish, for he caused the destruction of more Indians than his 
rival for the palm. He was born in England about the year 1600. He was a 
soldier by profession, and had practiced his murderous art in that cock-pit of 
Europe, the Netherlands. In 1630, he came to America, and was one of the 
original settlers at Dorchester. He went to the Connecticut Valley in 1635, 
and assisted in founding a settlement at Windsor. The peace of the little colony 
was soon disturbed by the depredations of the powerful Pequods, whose chief 
rendezvous was between the Thames and Mystic rivers. They believed the 
'white people to be friendly to their enemies, the Mohegans and Narragansets, 
and they had resolved to exterminate them. They kidnapped children, stole 
cattle, and finally made murderous attacks upon the outskirts of the settlement 
at Say brook, near the mouth of the Connecticut river. The danger became im- 
minent, and Captain Mason went down to Saybrook, with some followers, to 
reinforce and command the garrison of the little fort there. 

In the Spring of 1637, the settlers in the Connecticut Valley declared war 

conlinent of Europe, nearly two hundred years before. Within fifty or sixty years, during the sixteenth 
century, more than one hundred thousand persons accused of witchcraft, perished in the flames, in 
Germany alone. The delusion prevailed in Massachusetts for more than six months, in 1692 ; and during 
that time, twenty persons sufltered death, fifty-five were tortured or frightened into a confession of 
witchcraft, and over one hundred were imprisoned. The delusion commenced at Danvers, and spread 
over a great extent of country in the vicinity of Boston. 



BENJAMIN WEST. 29 



against the Pequods, and the Plymouth and Massachusetts people promised to 
assist them. Through the inttuence of Roger Williams, the Narragansets be- 
came alhes of the English; and when, late in May, Captain Mason, with eighty 
white men and seventy Mohegan Indians, anchored his pinnaces near Conanni- 
<;ut Island, he was joined by Miantonomoh, the great chief of the Narragansets, 
with two hundred warriors. With these, Mason proceeded toward the Pequod 
country, and was joined, on the way, by the Niantics. Sassacus, a fierce warrior, 
was the chief sachem of the Pequods. He could summon two thousand braves 
to the field, and his confidence in his great strength made him less vigilant than 
a weak leader would have been. He had no intelligence or suspicion of the 
approach of Mason, from the East. Pie was first informed of it by the seven sur- 
vivors of a dreadful massacre. The invaders crept as stealthily along as a panther, 
and just at dawn, on the 5th of June, 1637, fell upon the chief fort of the Pequods, 
on the Mystic river. Before sunrise, more than six hundred men, women, and 
children, hdd peris) ?i by weapons, or by the flames of their own burning wig- 
wams. Only seven escaped to arouse the nation to vengeance. The English, 
aware of their danger, hastened toward Saybrook; but the power of the Pequods 
was broken. When, a few days afterward, about one hundred Massachusetts 
men joined Mason, Sassacus and his followers fled westward, hotly pursued by 
the English. They took shelter in Sasco swamp, near Eairfield, where, after a 
severe battle, they all surrendered, except Sassacus and a few others, who fled 
to the Mohawks for refuge. There the great sachem was treacherously slain. 
The blow was terrible. A nation had disappeared in a day.' The New England 
tribes were awed ; and for forty years afterward the colonists were unmolested 
by them. 

Soon after the w^ar, the governor of Connecticut appointed Mason major-general 
of all the forces of the colony, which office ho filled until his death. He was 
also a civil magistrate for eighteen consecutive years; arid in 1660, he was 
elected deputy-governor. He" retired from public life in 1670; and in 1673, he 
died at Norwich, at the age of seventy-two years. 



BENJAMIN WEST. 

" THERE have been more volumes written about this great painter in Eng- 
X land," says Lester, "than there have been pages devoted to him in the 
land of his birth." Here he grew to young manhood, and chose the mother of 
his children ; in sunny Italy he achieved his first triumph in high art, and in 
England he reigned and died. His birth occurred at Springfield, in Chester 
county, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October, 1738. He was the youngest of 
the nine children of excellent Quaker parents; and at seven years of age, while 
keeping flies from the sleeping baby of his eldest sister, he sketched her portrait 
so accurately with black and red ink, that his mother, snatchmg the paper 
(which he modestly attempted to conceal) from his hand, exclaimed, "I declare 
he has made a likeness of little Sally!" His parents encouraged his efibrts, 
and the Indians supplied him with some of the pigments with which they painted 
their faces. His mother's "indigo bag" furnished him with blue, and from 
pussy's tail he drew the material for his brushes. Such was the juvenile be- 

1. Captain Mason -wrote a Brief Memoir of the Pequod War. It makes one shudder to read his blas- 
phemous allusion to the interposition of God in favor of the English, as if the poor Indian was not an 
object of the care and love of the Deity 1 Happily the time is rapidly passing by when men believe that 
they are doing God service by slaughtering, maiming, or in the least injuring, with vengeful feelings, 
any of his creatures. 



30 



BENJAMIN WEST. 




^mf m£j_ 



ginning of the greatest historical painter of the last century — such were the 
first buddings of the genius of that boy, who would not rido in company with 
another, because he aspired to nothing greater than a tailor's shop-board. '"Do 
you really mean to be a tailor?" asked little West. "Indeed I do," replied his 
boy-corapanion. "Then you may ride alone," exclaimed the young aspirant, 
leaping to the ground. " I mean to be a painter, and be the companion of 
kings and emperors ; I '11 not ride with one willing to be a tailor!" 

At the age of fifteen years, young West had learned the use of proper colors, 
and was a popular portrait painter. The pursuit of such art was contrary to the 
discipline of the Quakers. A meeting was called to consult upon the matter. 
At length one arose and said, " God hath bestowed on this youth a genius for 
art ; shall we question his wisdom ? I see the Divine hand in this ; we shall 
do well to sanction the art and encourage this youth." Then the sweet women 
of the assembly rose up and kissed him. The men, one by one, laid their hands' 
on his head, and thus Benjamin West was solemnly consecrated to the service 
of the great art. His pictures produced both money and fame, and wealthy 
men furnished him with means to go to Italy, to study tlie works of the great 
masters. There every step was a triumph, and he became the best painter in 
Italy. He crossed the Alps and went to England. There prejudice and bad 
taste met him, but his genius overcame both. Among his earliest and best 



WILLIAM BYRD. 



patrons was Archbishop Drummond, who introduced him to the young King, 
George the Third. His majesty was delighted, and ordered him to paint The 
Departure of Regulus, that noble picture exhibited in the New York Crystal 
Palace, in 1853. That achievement placed him on the throne of English art. 
The King, and Reynolds, and West, founded the Royal Academy ; and he who, 
in the face of every obstacle, created a public taste for high art, was properly 
appointed "Painter to his Majesty," He designed thirty grand pictures, illus- 
trative of The Progress of Revealed Religion, and completed tv/enty-eight of 
them, besides a great number of other admirable works. But when insanity 
clouded the mind of King George, and his libertine son, the Prince of Wales, 
obtained power, the great painter was neglected. The king of art, A'i'ho had 
ruled for five and thirty years, was soon an exile from the court of his excellent 
friend, and many cherished anticipations of his prime were blighted in his dc- 
chning years. But when royalty deserted him, the generous people sustained 
him. He achieved great triumphs in his old age; and finally, on the 11th of 
March, 1820, when in the eighty-second year of his life, he was laid by the side 
of Reynolds and Opio in St. Paul's Cathedral. 



WILLIAM BYKD. 

A "JKOLTT half-way between Richmond and Old Jamestown, on the James River, 
Ti. in Virginia, is a fine brick mansion, surrounded by a fertile plantation, 
known as Westover. It was the residence of Colonel William Byrd, a wealthy 
cavalier, who came from England during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. 
He was really the founder of the city of Richmond, at the Falls of the James 
River. A small fortification had been erected there, as a defense against the 
Indians, as early as 1645; but about 1680, Colonel Byrd, having received a 
conditional grant of land at the Falls, sent more than fifty able-bodied men there 
to make a settlement. Ho erected a mill and other buildings for the use of their 
productions, and the settlement was known as Byrd^s Warehouse. In 1682, 
Colonel Byrd was a member of the governor's council, and he was much in 
public employment, until his death. When, after the revocation of the edict of 
Nantes, a large number of Huguenots, or French Protestants, 'came to America, 
three hundred of them were cared for, with parental solicitude, by Colonel Byrd, 
and they found pleasant homes in the Virginia colony. Many of these were 
educated men, and in Colonel Byrd they found an agreeable companion. He 
possessed fine literary and scientific tastes, and had the largest library in Amer- 
ica, at that time. In 1723, he was one of the commissioners appointed to estab- 
lish flie boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina. Toward the close 
of his life he employed his pen on scientific subjects, and was made a member 
of the London Royal Society. His munificence and style of living were un- 
equalled in the colonies. They were like those of an English nobleman. Ho 
died in 1743, at the age of almost eighty years, leaving his homestead, and a 
splendid fortune, to his son William. He, too, became a public man ; and in 
1756, was a commissioner to treat with the Indians on the western borders of 
Virginia. He accompanied the expedition against Fort Duquesne, under Wash- 
ington's command, in 1758. Being a spendthrift and a gambler, his immense 
wealth was greatly lessened, at his death. His widow occupied the Westover 
property at the time of our revolution ; and there Benedict Arnold (who was her 
relative) landed, when he invaded Virginia in the service of his royal purchaser, 
in 1781, De Chastellux, one of Rochambeau's officers, speaks rapturously of 
the beauty of Westover, and the pleasures of society there. 



32 ELEAZER WHEELOCK. 



EI. EAZER WHEEEOCK. 

THOSE good men who by personal sacrifices and diligent efforts seek to elevate 
their fellow-beings of low degree, should be remembered and honored. 
Among those of the past who deserve such reward, is Eleazer Wheelock, the 
founder of the first school for the Christian education of Indian youths in New 
England. Ho was born at Windham, Connecticut, in April, 1711 ; and in 1733, 
was graduated at Yale College. Two years afterward he was ordained a gospel 
minister, and settled as pastor, at Lebanon. There he opened a scliool for the 
education of English children; and in 1743, his first Indian pupil was admitted. 
He was a Mohegan youth of nineteen years, named Samson Occum, who had 
been converted to Christianity under the preaching of a clergyman at Norwich. 
Before entering Mr. Wheelock's school, Occum had learned to spell out sentences 
in the Bible for the edification of his eager dusk}^ listeners. He was anxious to 
become a spiritual teacher of his tribe. He remained with Mr. Wheelock be- 
tween four and five years, and afterward became a very successful preacher 
among the natives on the east end of Long Island. His success with Occum 
induced Mr. Wheelock to attempt the education of other Indian youths, with 
special reference to their preparation for missionary labors, believing that they 
would be more efficient among the savages, than white preachers.^ In 1762, he 
had more than twenty Indian youths in his school, the expenses being paid by 
voluntary subscriptions, small legislative grants, and contributions from the 
Boston commissioners of the Scotch society for propagating Christian knowledge. 
A farmer, named Moor, gave a house and some land, adjoining Mr. Wheelock's 
residence, for the use of the institution, and it became known as Moor's Indian 
Charity School. To increase its usefulness, it was determined to seek aid in 
England; and in 1766, Occum and Rev. Mr. Whitaker of Norwich, went 
thither for that purpose. The money collected by them was put into the hands 
of trustees, in England, at the head of whom was the Earl of Dartmouth ; and 
its expenditure was intrusted to the Scotch society. 

Hoping to be more eflQcient on the borders of the Indiiin country, wherein 
white settlements had not yet been planted, Dr. Wheelock . .''';;^ned his jiastoral 
charge at Lebanon, and established his school at Hanover, in New Hampshire. 
He also founded a college there, and named it Dartmouth, in honor of the Earl, 
notwithstanding that gentleman was opposed to the project, fearing it might 
interfere with the Indian School.2 Governor Wentworth ga\ o it a charter, and 
for nine years Dr. Wheelock labored vigorously at the head of each establish- 
ment. Th3 war for Independence seriously affected the piosperity of both en- 
terprises, yet the self-sacrificing founder saw glorious fruit produced by his 
planting. Among those white missionaries whom he prepared for their woik, 
was the faithful Kirkland, so long a noble laborer among the tribes in the in- 
terior of New York. Dr. Wheelock died at Hanover, on the 24th of April, 1779, 
at the age of sixty-eight years. 

1. This opinion proved to be erioncons. About one-half of those educated for the ministry returned 
to iheir old habits and vices, when they got among their people again. Among Mr. Wheelock's pupils 
was Bi-ant, the celebrated Mohawk chief. 

2. This fact exhibits the modestv of Dr. Wheelock, and at the same time shows that undue deference 
which all, persons formerly rendered to titles and dignities. The college ought to perpetuate the name 
of Dr. Wheelock, by its own title. 



CADWALLADER GOLDEN. 



33 




/l^>^i£L 



/^^ 




CAr>\VALLADER GOLDEN. 

THE representatives of royal power, in America, generally regarded the people 
as their subjects, rather than as fellow-citizens, and ruled by despotic power 
rather than by kindness and conciliation. There were honorable exceptions, 
and among these was Cadwallader Golden, whose character and public life were 
truthfully portrayed, more than forty years ago, by John W. Francis, M.D., now 
[1854] the Nestor of literature and science in New York. Golden was acting 
governor of New York when the stamp-act riots occurred, and was treated with 
indignity by a mob, because he was the representative of the king, and at the 
same time was highly respected by them as a man and valuable citizen. 

Gad walla der Golden was born in Dunse, Scotland, on the iTtli of Febraary, 
1688. He completed his collegiate studies at the university of Edinburgh, in 
1705, and after devoting three years to the study of mathematics and medical 
science, he came to America., where ho remained five years, as a practicing 
physician. He went to Great Britain in 1115, and formed the acquaintance of 
Halley and other leading men of science ; and the following year he married a 
pretty Scotch girl, returned to America, and settled in the city of New York. 
Golden soon abandoned his profession, for public employment. He was made 
surveyor-general of the province, a master in chancery, and finally became one 



8'i JOHN SMITH. 



of the governor's council. About the year 1750, he obtained a patent for a 
large tract of unsettled land near Newburgh, in Orange county, and named his 
.manor, Coldenham. There, after the year 1755, he resided, with his family, most 
of the time, engaged in agriculture and in literary and scientific pursuits. Many 
learned essays from his pen enriched the medical and scientific publications of 
his day; and his History of the Five Nations of Indians, is a noble monument in 
testimony of his careful and judicious researches in that special field of inquiry. 
Almost all of the scientific men of Europe were his correspondents, and Franklin 
and other leading Americans were among his intimate epistolary friends. Botany 
was his favorite study, and he was a constant and valued correspondent of Lin- 
naeus, the great master of the science ^-^r a series of years. His voluminous 
papers are now among the choice treasures of the New York Historical Society. 
In 1760, Dr. Golden was appointed lieutenant-governor of the province of 
New York, and became the acting magistrate, at eighty years of age. Ho 
managed public affairs with great prudence during all the trying scenes of the 
Stamp- Act excitement; and the Sons of Lilerty respected him, while they defied 
his delegated power. He was released from office, by Governor Tryon, in 1775, 
and retired to his country seat, at Flushing, Long Island, where he died on the 
28th of September, 177G; a few days before that great conflagration which con- 
sumed more than five hundred buildings in the city of New York. Governor 
Golden was then almost eighty -nine years of age. 



JOHN SMITH. 

THERE are men whose career appears meteor-like in brilliancy and progress, 
which nevertheless makes permanent impressions upon the world's history, 
and beams in the firmament of past events, with steady, planetary lustre. John 
Smith belongs to the meteor-heroes of our race. He was born at Willoughby, in 
Lincolnshire, England, in 1559, and in early childhood was distinguished for his 
daring spirit and love of adventure. At the age of thirteen years, he sold his 
books and satchel to procure money to pay his way to the sea-shore, for he had 
resolved to try life on the ocean wave. He was prevented from embarking, and 
apprenticed to a merchant. Two years afterward ho ran away, went to France, 
and then to the Low Gountries, and there studied military tactics. With a por- 
tion of his deceased father's estate, young Smith, at the age of seventeen years, 
went abroad, like a knight-errant, in search of adventures. On a voyage from 
Marseilles to Naples, a great storm arose. The crew of the vessel were Roman 
Catholics, who, believing the young heretic Englishman to be a Jonah, cast him 
into the sea to appease the angry waters. He swam to a small island, and there 
embarked in a French vessel for Alexandria, in Egypt. From thence he went 
to Italy, and then to Austria, where he entered the imperial army. His valor 
soon procured him the command of a troop of horse, which, in the war against 
the Turks, obtained the name of The Fiery Dragoons. On one occasion, during 
a siege, a Turkish officer oftcred to engage in a duel with any Ghristian soldier, 
"to amuse the ladies." The lot fell to Smith. They fought in sight of both 
armies. Smith cut off his antagonist's head, and carried it in triumph to the 
Austrian camp; and then fought two other Turkish champions with the same 
result. He was afterward captured and sold to a Pacha, who sent his prisoner 
as a present to his sweetheart, to be her slave. Her love was excited, and to 
insure his safety, she sent Smith to her brother. The Turk treated the captive 
cruelly. Soon an opportunity for escape was offered, when Smith killed his 



DAVID KITTENHOUSE. 85 

tyrant, lied into Muscovy, and found his way to Austria. The war had ended, 
and Smith departed from the Adriatic, with a French sea-captain, for Morocco. 
He was engaged in a sea-fight near the Canary Islands, with the Spaniards ; and 
then, after a long absence, returned to his native country. His restless spirit 
now yearned for adventures in the New World, and accompanying the first 
English expedition which successfully planted a settlement in America, he be- 
came the real founder of the Virginia colony. The settlers became jealous of 
his talent, on the voyage, and, ignorant that he was named in the "scaled box"^ 
as one of the Council, they put him m irons, under the plea that he intended to 
make himself King of Virginia. He was released when his name appeared 
among tiie appointed rulers. He possessed great energy, and he not only sup- 
ported good government by his presence, but saved the colony from destruction. 
He was rescued from death by Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian king, 
while a prisoner among them ; and he acquired such infiuence over the savages, 
that they were friendly to the English while Smith ruled the colony. He ex- 
plored the coast from Pamlico Sound to the Delaware river, and constructed a 
map of the country. An accident caused him to go to England for surgical at- 
tendance. Five years afterward he made a trading voyage to America, explored 
the coast from the Tliames to the Penobscot, made a map of the country, and 
called it New England. Smith offered to accompany the Pilgrim Fathers, to 
America, in 1620, but on account of his aristocratic notions, his proffered ser- 
vices were declined. He died in London, in 1631, at the age of seventy-two 
years. 



DAVID KITTENHOUSE. 

"VTEAR the banks of the beautiful Wissahiccon, in the vicinity of Germantown, 
iM four miles from Philadelphia, lived three hermits a century and a half ago ; 
and near their hiding-places from the world's ken, a mile from the old village 
where the good count Zinzendorfji the Moravian, labored and reposed, was the 
birth-place of one whose name is co-extensive with scientific knowledge. It 
was David Rittenhouse, the eminent mathematician, who was born in Rox- 
borough township, on the 8th of April, 1732. His father was a humble farmer, 
and David was his chief assistant v.dien his life approached young manhood. 
The geometrical diagrams which disfigured his implements of labor, the barn 
doors, and the pig-sty, attested the peculiar workings of his brain while yet a 
mere lad. These indications of genius would doubtless have been disregarded, 
and his aspirations remained unsatisfied, had not a feeble body made the aban- 
donment of field labor a stern necessity. David was apprenticed to a clock and, 
mathematical instrument maker, and the pursuit being consonant with his taste, 
he was eminently successful. 

Rittenhouse was a severe student, but on account of his pecuniary wants, he 
was deprived, in a great degree, of the most valuable sources of information, 
especially concerning the progress of science in Europe. While Newton and 
Liebnitz were warmly disputing for the honor of first discoverer of Fluxions, 
Rittenhouse, entirely ignorant of what they had done, became the inventor ol 
that remarkable feature in algebraical analysis. Appljdng the knowledge which 



1. The sillv King: James, instead of making an open appointment of a council for the government of 
Virginia, placed their names in a sealed box, with directions not to open it until their arrival on the 
shores of the New Woi Id . . 

1. Zinzendorf was the founder of the Moravians, or United Brethren, and preached in Germantown, 
for a while. 



DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 




he derived from study and reflection, to the mechanic arts, he produced a plan* 
etarium, or an exhibition of the movements of the solar system, by machinery. 
It is a most wonderful piece of mechanism, especially when we consider the 
fact that the inventor was yet an obscure mechanic in a country village. That 
work of art is in the possession of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, it 
having been purchased on the recommendation of President WitherspoonJ It 
gave him great reputation ; and in 1770, he went to Philadelphia, where he 
pursued his mechanical vocation, and met, daily, members of the Philosophical 
Society of that city, to whom he had, two years before, communicated the fact 
that he had calculated, with great exactness, the transit of Venus, which oc- 
curred on the 3d of June, 1769. Rittenhouse was one of those whom the Society 
appointed to observe it. Only three times before, in the whole range of human 
observations, had mortal vision beheld the orb of Venus pass across the disc of 
the sun.2 Upon the exactitude of the performance according to calculations, 
depended many important astronomical problems, and the hour was looked for- 



1. When Cornwallis arrived at Princeton, after the severe liattle at that place on the morning: of the 
2d of January, 1777, he saw and admired that work of art, and determined to carry it away wiih him. 
The Americans caused him to leave the place too soon to accomplish his purpose. During the same 
year, Silas Deane, the American commissioner at the French court, actually proposed to present the 
planeta'ium to the French king, as a bonus for his good will ! The conqueror and the diplomatist wer« 
both foiled. 

2. See sketch of John Winthrop, LL.D., page 44. 



UNCAS. 87 



ward to. by philosophers, with intense interest. As the moment approached, 
according to his own calculations, Rittenhouse became greatly excited. When 
the discs of the two planets touched, at precisely the expected momtiit, the 
philosopher fainted. His highest hopes were realized ; and on the Sth of No- 
vember following he was blessed with the sight of a transit of Mercury. 

When Dr. Franklin died, Rittenhouse was chosen President of the American 
Philosophical Society, to fill his place; and from his own earnings he gave the 
institution fifteen hundred dollars, on the day of his inauguration. His fame 
was now world-wide, and many official honors awaited his acceptance. He 
held the office of treasurer of the state of Pennsylvania, for many years ; and in 
1792, he was appointed the first Director of the Mint. Failing health compelled 
him to resign that trust, in 1795; and on' the 6th of June, the following year, 
be died the death of a Christian, at the age of sixty -four years. 



UNCAS. 

UNLIKE most of the Indian chiefs and sachems who appear conspicuous in 
our early annals, the line of descent from Uncas comes down almost to our 
own time, and he has been honored, in preference to all others, with a commem- 
orative monument from the hands of the white man. Uncas was a Pequod, by 
birth. Rebelling against his chiet^ Sassacus, ho was expelled from the Pequod 
domain, and by his talent and sagacity soon took the rank and power of a chief 
among the Mohegans. He became the inveterate enemy of Sassacus ; and he 
was at the head of the Mohegans who accompanied Captain Mason against the 
Pequods, in 1637. He was always the firm friend of the English ; and during that 
dark period, when King Phihp succeeded in arming all the New England tribes 
against the white people, Uncas remained faithful. He even took up arms 
against Philip, and with two hundred Mohegans, and a greater number of sub- 
jugated Pequods, he marched with Major Talcott to Brookfield and Hadley, and 
at the latter place assisted in defeating seven hundred of Philip's savage allies. 

Like Philip, Uncas was opposed to the preaching of Christianity among his 
people, preferring to have them believe in the religion of his fothers. Yet he 
never used coercive measures in opposition; and, finally, he so far yielded, that 
on one occasion, when the country was suffering from a great drought, he asked 
a Christian minister to pray for rain. A copious shower fell the next day, and 
Uncas became like King Agrippa in the presence of Paul — he was almost per- 
suaded to become a Christian. In 1659. Uncas gave a deed to several white 
people, conveying to them a large tract of land at the head of the Pequod river 
[the Thames], and there the city of Norwich was founded. The exact period 
of the death of Uncas is unknown. It is supposed to liave occurred about 1683, 
when he was succeeded by his son Owaneko, or Oneco, who distinguished him- 
self on the side of the English, in King Philip's war. In his old age, Oneco 
used to go about begging, accompanied by his squaw. As he could not speak 
English well, Richard Bushnell wrote the following lines for him to present to 
the benevolent : 

" Oneco, King, his queen doth bring to beg a h'tile food, 
As they go along their friends amor.g, to try how kind and good ; 
Some pork, some beef, for their relief; and if yo'i can't spaie bread, 
She'll thank yo'a i^or your padding, as they go a gooding, and carry it on her head." 

A neat granite obelisk, about twenty feet in height, has been erected in the 
city of Norwich, to the memory of Uncas. The foundation stone was laid in 



KING PHILIP. 



1825, by General Jackson ; and in the small cemetery in which it stands, a de- 
scendant of Uncas, named Mazeon, was buried in 1827. There are a few of the 
Mohegan tribe yet living, near Norwich ; but soon it may be written upon a 
tomb-stone, "The last of the Mohegans." 



KINO PHILIP. 

A GENEROUS mind readily appreciates and commends nn exhibition of true 
patriotism, even by an enemy. ' Those who regard the Indian as without 
the pale of the syinpatliies of civilization, are often compelled to yield reluctant 
admiration of the qualities which make men heroes, sages, and patriots, when 
exhibited by tliis taboo'd race. No one appears more prominent as a claimant 
for consideration on account of these quahties, tlian Metacomet, the last chief of 
the "Wampanoags of Rhode Island, known in history as King Fhilip, He was 
one of two sons of Massasoit, the sachem- who gave a friendly welcome to the 
Pilgrim Fathers. They were named, respectively, Alexander and Philip, by 
governor Winslow, in compliment to their father. Alexander was the eldest, 
and succeeded his father in authority. He died, and his mantle fell upon Pliilip, 
a bold, powerful-minded warrior, Avhose keen perception had already given him 
uneasiness respecting the future of his race. He saw, year after year, the en- 
croachments of the white people, yet he faithfully kept the treaty of his father, 
with them. He even endured insults and gross indignities; and when liis hot- 
blooded warriors gathered around his throne upon Mount Hope, and counselled 
war, he refused to listen. At length forbearance seemed no longer a virtue, 
and the hatchet was lifted. 

Among the "prajang Indians," as Eliot's converts were called, was one who 
had been educated at Cambridge, and was employed as a teacher. On account 
of some misdemeanor, he had fled to Philip, and became his secretary. He 
afterward returned to the white people, and accused Philip of treasonable de- 
signs. Because of this charge, he was waylaid and murdered b}^ some of the 
"Wampanoags. Three suspected men were tried, convicted on slender testimony, 
and hanged. The ire of the Wampanoags was fiercely kindled. Philip was 
cauticus, for he knew his weakness; his young warriors were impetuous, for 
they counted not the cost of war. The sachem was finally o^'erruled ; and re- 
membering the indignities which he had suffered from the English, he trampled 
solemn treaties under foot, and lighted the flame of war. Messengers were sent 
to other tribes, and with all the power of Indian eloquence, Philip exhorted Lis 
fol'.owers to curse the white man, and to swear eternal hostility to the "pale 
faces." The events which followed have been detafled in our sketch of Captain 
Church, and need not be repeated here. Metacomet was a patriot of truest 
stamp, and his general character, measured by the standard of true appreciation, 
in which all controUing circumstances are considered, bears a favorable com- 
parison with the patriots of other lands, and of more enlightened people. His 
death occurred in August, 1776, when he was about fifty years of age. During 
the war, the government of Plymouth offered thirty shillings for every head of 
an Indian killed in battle. The faithless Wampanoag received that price — 
"thirty pieces of silver" — for his master's head. 

1. Sachem and Chief are distinct characters, yet Ihsy are sometimes found in the same person. A 
sachem is the civil head of a tribe ; a chief is a military leader. Philip was both. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 



39 




BENJAMIN FKANKLIN. 

THE words of Solomon, " Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall 
stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men," attracted the 
attention of a Boston tallow-chandler's son, when he was yet m youthhood. 
Tliat youth was the immortal Benjamin Franklin, who was born on the mornmg 
of the 17th of January, 1706, and was christened that afternoon. At the ago 
of eight years he went to a grammar school; but at ten his services were re- 
quired in his flither's business, and his education was neglected. At the age ot 
twelve years he was apprenticed to his brother James, a printer He made 
great proficiency in his business, and a love for reading was gratified, otten at 
the expense of half a night's sleep. The Neio Englavd Courani printed by his 
brother in 1721, was the third newspaper estabhshed in America J Young 
Franklin wrote several essays for it. which attracted much_ attention. Ihe 
author was unknown and unsuspected. At about the same time he reaa tne 



1. The other two were The Boston Neii:s Letter and The Boston Gazette. 



40 BENJAMIN" FHANELIN. 

. — . M . 

productions of Shaftesbury and Collins, and he became a sceptic in religion, and 
a powerful disputant, by the use of the Socratic method of argument — asking 
questions. Because of his scepticism he became unpopular in Boston. This 
fact, and ill treatment by his brother, determined him to leave the place. ITo 
went to New York in a sloop, and from thence to Philadelphia, on foot, where 
he soon procured employment, as a printer, in the establishment of Mr. Keimer. 
His intelligence and good conduct attracted the attention of prominent men, among 
whom was (xovernor Keith, who advised him to go into business for himself. 
"With promises of aid from the governor, he started for London to buy printing 
materials. The aid was withheld ; and on his arrival, he sought employment 
for a livelihood. He was now only eighteen years of age. By the practice of 
the most rigid economy, he saved a greater part of his wages; and his influence 
among his fellow-workmen, against useless expenses for beer and other things, 
was benctijial. At night he used his pen; and by a Dissertation on Liberty, in 
which ho contended that virtue and vice are nothing more than conventional 
distinctions, he made tlio acquaintance of Mandeville and other infidel writers. 
Franklin always looked back to these early efforts of his pen, in opposition to 
Christian ethics, with fvreat regret. 

Frankhn returned to Philadelphia in the Autumn of 1126, as a merchant's 
clerk ; but the death of his employer, the following year, induced him to work, 
again, for Mr. Keimer. His ingenuity was profitable to his employer, for he 
engraved devices on typo metal, made printer's ink, and in various ways saved 
money to the estabhshment. In 1728, ho formed a partnership in the printing 
business with Mr. Meredith, but it was dissolved the following year. He then 
purchased Keimer's miserably-conducted paper, issued it in a greatly improved 
style, uttered in it many of those aphorisms which have since become famous, 
and then laid the foundation of his future usefulness. He married in 1730, 
lived frugally, and in the course of three or four years began to save money. 
He opened a small shop for the sale of stationery, to which his pleasant and 
edifying conversation drew many of the men of literary taste in the town. A 
literary club was formed, in which questions were discussed which required 
reference to books. The members brought such as they needed, from time to 
time, and Franklin conceived the idea of forming a public library. It was pop- 
ular; and in 1731, the foundation of that noble institution, the Philadelphia 
Library, was laid.' The following year he commenced the publication of Poor 
Richard's Almanac. It was fuU of sound maxims, and its popularity was so 
great, that he sold ten thousand copies annually. Ho continued it until 1757, 
when the demands of pubhc business upon his time, compelled him to relin- 
quish it. 

Franklin's first public employment was undertaken in 1736, when he was 
appointed clerk of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania. The foUowmg year 
he was appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia. He now began to be one of the 
most popular men in the province. The fact is demonstrated by the circum- 
stance that, by his personal exertions, he obtained ten thousand names to a 
voluntary association for the defence of the province, in 1744, when an attempt 
to procure a militia law had failed. He was chosen a member of the Assembly 
in 1747, and was regularly re-elected for ten years. Although Franklin was no 
orator, yet no man possessed greater influence than he. in that body. Yet these 
public employments did not draw his attention from books and scientific inves- 
tigations. For a long time he held a theory that the electricity of the scientific 

1. Th3 association at first consisted of 40 membevs. The lib-arv was first established in the house of 
Franklin's warm friend, Robert dracp. In 174i), it was placei in 1he State House. In 1773, it was 
removed ( t Carpenter's Hall ; and in 179 J, the buildine erwtel for its use, was completed. The associa- 
tion was incorporated in 1742, as The Lihrary Company of PkilaJetphia. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 41 

apparatus and the lightning of the clouds were • identical ; and in 1752, he de- 
monstrated the truth of his theory by unmistakable experiments.-' He imme- 
diately applied the discovery to a practical use, by showing that pointed iron 
rods, extending from a distance above the highest part of a house to the ground, 
would preserve the house from lightning, by conducting it into the earth. The 
theory and its demonstration were made known in Europe, and Franklin's name 
became-^nown and venerated throughout the scientific world. 

In 1753, Franklin was made deputy postmaster-general of the British colonies 
in America, and the same year he projected and established the Academy of 
Sciences of Philadelphia. In 1754, he was one of the colonial delegates who 
met in Congress at Albany to devise means of defence against the French ; and 
there he submitted a plan of union, similar, in many respects, to our Federal 
Constitution, but it was rejected by the British government and the colonial 
assemblies for widely difterent reasons. Three years afterward, Franklin was 
sent to England as the agent of Pennsylvania, and was employed in the same 
capacity by three other colonies. There he associated Avith the greatest men of 
the time, and the poor journeyman printer of a few years before, "stood before 
kings," was caressed by men of learning, was made a member of the Eoyal 
Society, and honored with the degree of Doctor of Laws, by the Universities of 
Edinburgh and Oxford. Ho returned to America in 17G2, and resumed his seat 
in the Assembly ; but two years afterward, the dispute between the colonies 
and the government having commenced in earnest, he was again sent as agent 
for Pennsylvania, to England. He remained abroad until 1775, during which 
time he visited the Continent, and became acquainted with the most learned 
men in Europe. On the day of his arrival in America, he was elected a mem- 
ber of the Continental Congress; and he was one of the signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence the following year. During the whole period of the 
revolution he was continually active in a civil capacity at home or abroad. 
Congress sent him as commissioner to the French court in 1776, and he was one 
of the most accomplished and adroit diplomatists at Versailles. Finally, when 
peace was determined upon, Franklin was one of the leading commissioners in 
forming those treaties with Great Britain and other powers, Avhich secured the 
independence of the colonies. He was then appointed Minister Plenipotentiary 
at the French court, and "stood before kings " until, by his own request, another 
was appointed in his place, and ho returned home. He arrived at Philadelphia 
early in the Autumn of 1785, and was received with the highest republican 
honors. In 1787, he was a leading man in the convention which formed the 
Federal Constitution; and the following year he withdrew from public life, 
being then eighty-two years of age. On the 17th of April, 1790, that great 
Philosopher, Statesman, and Sage, was undressed for the grave ; and beneath a 
].3at marble slab, in the burial-ground of Christ Church, Philadelphia, rest his 
juortal remains.^ 

1. IIo sent up an iron-pointed Icite lowanl a liovering thunder cloud, and held it by a silken string, 
attached to Ihe long hempen one. To the silken end was fastened an iion key, and when the cloud 
l)i3sed over, he touched the key with his knuckles, and received a spark. It was a bold but successful 
experiment. 

2. According to his directions, the only inscription on the broad slab is, 

BENJAMIN ) 

AND S FRANKLIN. 
DEBORAH S 
1790. 

Many years before, he w.ote the following epitaph for himself: 

" The body of Benj.\iiin Franklin, Printer, Like ^he cover of an old Book, Its contents torn out, 
(.^.nd stripped of its lettering and gilding,) Jiies Jicre, fond for worms. But the work shall not be lost, 
For it will (as he believed) appear once more, In a new and more elegant edition, Revised and corrected, 
by The Author." 



42 NATHANIEL BACON. 



NATHANIEL BACON. 

OFTEN, in men's estimation, success makes effort a virtue, but failure makes it 
a crime. A successful blow at tyranny is called patriotism ; an unsuccess- 
ful one is branded as rebellion. Nathaniel Bacon lifted his arm for popular 
freedom, failed, and history recorded his name among traitors. He was a young 
man of great boldness and energy of character. His birth-place was in Suflblk 
county, England, and in London he was educated for the legal profession. He 
came to America during Cromwell's rule in p]ngland, and was soon called to a 
seat in the council of Governor Berkeley. Thoroughly democratic in his views, 
Bacon often crossed the official path of the haughty cavalier, as an assertor of 
popular rights, especially after the restoration of Charles the Second made the 
Virginia loyalists insolent and tyrannical. The assembly, under the influence 
of the governor, abridged the liberties of the people, propagated the vipers of 
intolerance, and imposed heavy fines upon Baptists and Quakers. The people 
soon learned to despise the name of king, and a strong republican party was 
formed. 

Circumstances soon favored a demonstration of republican strength. Some 
Indian tribes commenced depredations upon the settlements in the upper part 
of Virginia, and they finally penetrated as far as Bacon's plantation in the vi- 
cinity of Richmond. Berkeley appeared indifferent, and the planters asked the 
privilege of protecting themselves. The governor refused ; when at least five 
hundred men collected together, chose Bacon for commander, and drove the 
Indians back to the Potomac. Berkeley was jealous of Bacon, proclaimed him 
a traitor, and sent troops to pursue and arrest him. The people arose in re- 
bellion, the aristocratic assembly was dissolved and a republican one elected ; 
universal suffrage was restored ; Bacon was chosen commander-in-chief of the 
military, and a commission for him was demanded of the governor. That official 
was alarmed and promised compliance, not, however, until Bacon, with a large 
force, approached Jamestown. He was compelled to attest the bravery and 
loyalty of Bacon; and on the 4th of July, 1676, just a hundred years before the 
colonies were declared free states, a more liberal and enlightened legislation 
commenced in Virginia. That day was truly the harbinger of American inde- 
pendence and nationality. 

Again the Indians approached, and Bacon proceeded to drive them back. As 
soon as he had departed, Berkeley treacherously published a proclamation, re- 
versing the proceedings of the assembly, repudiating Bacon's commission, and 
declaring him a traitor. Back to Jamestown the indignant patriot marched, 
and lighted a civil war. The governor and adhering loyalists were driven be- 
yond the York river, and the wives of many were detained as hostages for peace. 
Troops came from England to support Berkeley ; and when rumor told of their 
march up the peninsula. Bacon applied the torch and laid Jamestown in ashes. 
He then crossed the York to drive the enemies of popular freedom entirely out 
of the old dominion, but there he met a foe to his life more deadly than royalists 
or the Indians. The malaria from the low lands infused its poison into his veins, 
and at the house of Dr. Green, in Gloucester county, the brave republican died, 
on the 1st of October, 1676, at the age of about thirty-seven years. Berkeley 
assumed power immediately, and Bacon's followers were terribly persecuted. 
Twenty were hanged, scores were imprisoned, and much property was confis- 
cated. Because the patriots were unsuccessful, this episode in Virginia history 
is known as " Bacon's Rebellion." 



JONATHAN TRUMBULL. 



43 



^^§%^ 




JONATHAN TRUMBULL. 

ANE of the main pillars of support upon which General Washington relied 
U durino- the War for Independence, was Jonathan Trumbull, then Governor 
of Connecticut. He was born at Lebanon, Connecticut on the 21st of June 
1710, and was graduated at Harvard College in 1727. His serious nund turned 
to theology as a profession, and he commenced its study with the Rev. Solomon 
Williamsf of Lebanon. The death of an elder brother, who was_ engaged in 
mercantile business with his father, caused Jonathan to change his intentions 
and become a merchant. When only twenty-three years of age, he_ was elected 
a member of the Connecticut Assembly, where he soon became distinguished as 
one of its most active committee men. In 1766, he was elected lieutenant- 
o-overnor of the colonv, and became ex-officio chief justice of the superior court. 
He espoused the patriot cause very early; and in 1768, he took the bold step 
of refusin- to take the oath, which enjoined almost unconditional submission to 



44 JOHN WINTHROP. 

» - ■ ■ 

Parliament, and which a ministerial order required. That step was popular 
with tiie people; and the following year he was chosen governor by a very large 
majority. His influence became almost unbounded throughout Kew England; 
and while the Adams's and Hancock were legislating in the Continental Con- 
gress, Governor Trumbull was recognized as the great leader in the East. He 
was an active, self-sacrificing, and reliable man throughout the whole contest; 
and he had the proud distinction of being the only colonial governor who, at the 
commencement of the revolution, espoused the republican cause. For fourteen 
consecutive years he was elected to the chief magistracy of his native State ; but 
when peace returned, and all danger seemed over, he left the helm forever. He 
declined a reflection; and at the age of seventy -three years, he retired from 
public life. In August, 1785, he was seized with a malignant fever, which de- 
stroyed his life on the 17th of that month. His son and grandson both filled 
his chair of office, the latter having been governor in 1 849. 

The Marquis do Chastellux, who came to America with Rochambeau in 1780, 
thus speaks of the personal appearance of Governor Trumbull: "He is seventy 
years old ; his whole life is consecrated to business, which he passionately loves, 
whether important or not; or rather, with respect to him, there is none of the 
latter description. He has all the simpHcity in his dress, all the importance, 
and even pedantry, becoming the great magistrate of a small republic. He 
brought to my mind the burgomasters of Holland in the time of the Heinsius's 
and Barnevelts." He was grently beloved by Washington ; and no name on 
the pages of our history appears brighter, as a pure patriot and honest man, 
than that of Jonathan Trumbull. 



JOHN WINTHROP. 

ONE of the most accomplished scholars of the last century, was John "Winthrop, 
professor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Harvard University. 
He was born in Boston, in 1715, and was graduated at Harvard when only 
seventeen years of age. His studies took a wide range, and included theology 
and medicine, with the natural sciences. When he was appointed Hollis Pro- 
fessori in the university, he was considered the most learned man in America; 
and his teaching and example gave a powerful impetus to the study of the exact 
sciences in this country. As early as 1740, he made observations on the transit 
of Mercury, and published them in the Transactions of the Eoyal Society of 
London. 

In June, 1761, he went to St. John's. Newfoundland, with his instruments 
and attendants, to observe the transit of Venus, that point being the most favor- 
able, in America, for such observations. That passage of Venus across the disc 
of the sun had been looked forward to with great interest, for one hundred and 
twenty-two years had elapsed since a similar phenomenon had been observed.2 
Mr. Winthrop's observations were accurate, and of the greatest value. They 
gave his name and that of Harvard College a world-wide reputation. The Eoyal 
Society elected him a member of that body ; and the University at Pldinburgh 
conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., or Doctor of Laws. He also observed 
the transit of Venus, in 1769,^ and the papers which he published on that subject 

_ 1. A professorship liberally endowed by John Hollis. He founded two professorships in that irstitu- 
tion — divinity and mathematics. Mr. Winthvop was pofessor of mathcma'ics. 

2. It cannot be seen with the naked eye. The telescope was first used fimong moderns early in the 
17th century, and the first transit of Venus observed with it. was on the 61h of December, 16.'1. The 
next was on ihe 4th of December, 1639. Apcain, on the .''>th of June, 1761, and the 3d of June, 1769. The 
next transit will take place on the 8th of December, 1874. 

3. See sketch of David Rittenhouse. 



JOHA^ BARTEA^t. 45 



procure 1 his admission to membership in the most eminent scientific societies of 
the worl 1. 

In 176?, Dr. Winthicj pubHshed his Cogita de Gometis^ a work of profound 
researcli, and of great value to tlie scientihc world. At this time the dispute 
between the American colonies and Great Britain was assuming much import- 
ance, and Dr Winthrop engaged zealously in the cause of the colonists. Not- 
withstanding he labored intensely in the duties of his professorship, he engaged 
in all the exciting discussions of the day, and was ever found on the side of 
human freedom. During all the exciting scenes of the early days of the revolu- 
tion, around Boston, he was a firm patriot, a wise counsellor, and efficient pro- 
moter of the good cause. He held his professorship until his death, which 
occurred on the 3d of May, 1779, in the sixty -fifth year of his age. 



JOHN BART RAM. 

THE men of science in Europe, a hundred years .ago, were occasionally startled, 
as with a meteor flash, by scintillations of great minds in America; and 
it was a hard question for them to solve how genius could be fostered into 
vigorous life amid the cool shades of that wilderness. Yet here and there the 
evidences of such genius intruded upon their stately opinions, and they were 
compelled to offer the hand of fellowship to American brethren, equal in pro- 
fundity of knowledge with themselves. Of this class was John Bartram, an 
eminent botanist, who was born near Darby, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, 
in the year 1701. He found few helps to education in early life, but study and 
perseverance overcame a host of difficulties. He seldom sat down to a meal with- 
out a book, and he learned the classic languages with great facility. . In the 
study of medicine and surgery ho greatly delighted; and drawing his medicines 
chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, ho pn;cticod successfully among the poor 
of his neighborhood. His avocation was that of a farmer, and his favorite study 
was botany. 

Mr. Bartram was the first American who conceived the plan of establishing a 
botanic garden for American plants and vegetables. He carried his plan into 
execution, by devoting about six acres, near Philadelphia, to the purpose. Ho 
traversed the country in every direction, from Canada on the north to Florida ■ 
on the south, in search of new productions, and his garden was enriched and 
beautified by the results of his explorations. His philosophical knowledge at- 
tracted the attention of learned and scientific men, at home and abroad, and 
with these his intercourse became extensive. He sent many botanical collec- 
tions to Europe, and their beauty, noveky, and admirable classification, won 
universal applause. Literary and scientific societies of London, Edinburgh, 
Stockholm, and other cities, placed his name among those of. their honorary 
members; and finally, G-eorge the Third of England appointed him "American 
Botanist to his Majesty." Ho held that honorable position until his death, which 
occurred in September, 1777, when he was in the seventy-sixth year of his age. 
His zeal in scientific pursuits was unabated till the last. At the age of seventy 
years, he made a journey in East Florida, to examine and collect the natural 
productions of that region. His son, William, who accompanied his father in 
many of these excursions, published, in 1792, an interesting account of their 
travels through East Florida, the Cherokee country, &c. John Bartram lived 
and died an exemplary member of the Society of Friends. 



46 



CHARLES THOMSON. 




CiHAKI.ES THOMSON. 

OF all the patriots of the Revolution, no man was better acquainted with the 
men and events of that struggle, than Charles Thomson, who was the per- 
manent Secretary of the Continental Congress for more than fifteen years. He was 
born in Ireland in 1730, and at the age of eleven years was brought to America 
in company with three older brothers. Their father died from the effects of 
sea-sickness, when within sight of the capes of the Delaware. They landed at 
New Castle, in Delaware, and had no other capital with which to commence 
life in the New World, than strong and willing hands, and honest hearts, Charles 
was educated at New London, in Pennsylvania, by Dr. Allison, and became a 
teacher in the Friend's Acadeni}', at New Castle. He went to Philadelphia, 
where he enjoyed the friendship of Dr. Franklin and other eminent men. In 
1756, he was the secretary for the Delaware Indians, at a great council held 
with the white people, at Easton ; and that tribe adopted him as a son, according 
to an ancient custom. With all the zeal of an ardent nature, Thomson espoused 
the republican cause ; and when the first Continental Congress met, in Phila- 
delpliia, in September, 1774, he was called to the responsible duty of secretary 
to that body.^ At about that time, he married Hannah Harrison (the aunt of 

1. Watson relates that Thomson had just come into Philadelphia, with Ms bride, and was alighting 



FRANCIS ALLISON. 47 

President Harrison), whose brother, Benjamin, was one of the signers of the 
Declaration of Independence. Year after year, Mr. Thomson kept the records 
of the proceedings of Congress, until the new organization of the government 
under the i'ederal Constitution, in 1789. But the demands of public business 
did not wean him from books, of which he was a great lover. H e had a passion 
for the study of Greek authors, and actually translated the Septuagint from the 
original into English. He made copious notes of the progress of the Revolution, 
and after retiring from public life, in 1789, he prepared a History of his owr 
times. But his sense of justice and goodness of heart, would not permit him tC' 
publish it; and a short time before he died, he destroyed the manuscript. He 
gave as a reason, that he was unwilling to blast the reputation of families rising 
into repute, whose progenitors were proved to be unworthy of the friendship of 
good men, because of their bad conduct during the war. So the world has lost 
the most authentic civil history of the struggle for independence, ever produced. 
Mr. Thomson died on the 16th of August, 1824, when in the ninety-fifth year of 
his age. He then resided at Lower Merion, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, 
where he was buried. In 1838, his nephew removed his remains to Laurel Hill 
Cemetery, over which is a handsome monument, bearing an appropriate inscrip- 
tion, composed by John F. Watson, Esq., the Annalist. 



FRANCIS ALLISON. 

THE early instructors of great men ought to have a share in the honors of their 
pupils, if, as faithful teachers, their instructions have led to such greatness. 
In that relation to several of the men distinguished in the councils of the nation 
during our War for Independence, stands Francis Allison. He was born in 
Ireland in 1705, and completed his education at the University of Glasgow, in 
Scotland. At the age of thirty years he emigrated to America, and having been 
ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church, he was chosen pastor of a flock 
at New London, in Chester count;f, Pennsylvania. His Christian zeal made 
him yearn for more workers in his Master's vineyard, and he opened a free school 
in which ho taught many who expressed themselves desirous of becoming gospel 
bearers. About the year 1747, he was invited to take charge of an academy in 
Philadelphia, where ho became instructor of many youths, who afterward oc- 
cupied conspicuous public stations. He had educated Charles Thomson, the 
secretary of the Continental Congress during the whole of the revolution and 
several years afterward. In 1755, Di\ Allison was chosen vice-provost of the 
College in Philadelphia, then just established; and among his earliest pupils, 
was Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 
He was professor of moral philosophy ; and during these employments he con- 
tinued his ministerial labors as pastor of the first Presbyterian Church in Phila- 
delphia. Dr. Allison died at Philadelphia, on the 28th of November, 1777, at 
the age of seventy-two years. 

from his chaise, when a messenprer from the delegates in Carpenter's Hall came to hira, and said they 
wanted him to corae and take minutes of Iheir proceedings, as he was an expert at such business. For 
his Srst year's service, he received no paj'. So Congress informed his wife, that they wished to com- 
pensate her for the absence of her husband during that time, and wished her to name what kind of a piece 
of plate she would like to receive. She chose an urn, and that silver vessel is yet ia the family. 



48 ' INCREASE matiie::. 



INCREASE MATHER. 

AMONG- tho most eminent divines and boldest asscrters of freedom in New 
England during the angry discussions between those settlements and tho 
imperial governments in the reign of Charles the Second, was Increase Matlier, 
a native of Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 21st of Jan- 
uary, 1639. He was an exceedingly precocious child ; and at the age of twelve 
years, entere I Harvard College as a student. He graduated with honor in 1G5G, 
and tin following year entered as a student at Trinity College, Dublin. After 
an absence of four years, he returned to Boston; and in 1664, was ordained 
minister of the North Church in that city, which connection he held sixtj'-two 
years, a part of the time assisted by his son, Cotton Mather. 

Mr. Mather was chosan to fill the presidential chair of Harvard College, after 
the daath of President Oakes, but finally resigned when the faculty required 
him to live in Cambridge, and thus he separated from his beloved Hock in Bos- 
ton. After the Enghsh revolution in 1688,' and the expulsion of governor An- 
dros from New England, - Mr. Mather went to the court of William and Mary, 
and by the use of great diplomatic skill, in connection with Sir William Phipp.s, 
procured the celebrated charter of 1691, for his native colon}'. On the assem- 
bling of the first legislature, under the new charter, a vote of thanks was adopted 
by that body, expressive of their appreciation of his faithful public services. 

That frightful delusion known as " Salem Witchcraft"' prevailed about the 
time of Mather's return to America, and while his son, Cotton, was fanning the 
flame, he wrote and spoke against it. Like most people in his day, he believed 
in the existence of witches, * yet his gentle heart and strong common sense ut- 
terly condemned the wicked and cruel accusations and prosecutions witnessed 
almost daily. His pen and tongue were among the most efficient instruments 
m tlie final suppression of legal proceedings. 

During his presidency of Harvard College, Mr. Mather received the title of 
Doctor in Divinity from the fliculty of that institution. His diploma was the 
first of the kind issued in America, and he was a worthy recipient of that honor, 
for his long life was spent in the service of his divine Master, and of his native 
country. His piety was unaffected, and his benevolence was manifested by his 
giving one-tenth of all his income to charitable purposes. At the time of his 
death, which occurred on the 23d of August, 1723, at tho age of eightj^-four 
years, he was properly called the Patriarch of New England. 

1. James, Duke of York, and bi-othsr of Charles the Second, succeeded that monarch as King of Great 
Britain. He was a Roman Catholic, tiwl like all the other Stuart kings, was a bad man. The people re- 
belled in 1688, and called James' son-in-law, William, Prince of Orar.go and Nassau, lo the thionc. He 
and his wife, Mary, James' daughter ruled jointly. Their profiles appeared together on the coins, and 
that fact was thj origin of the expression of endearment — 

" Cooing and billing. 
Like William and Mary on a shilling." 

2. Andros has been termed " The Tyrant of New England." When the revolution became It-.-.own, 
Andros was seized, at Hosion, put 0:1 board a vessel, and, with fif.y of his political associates, was 
sent lo England, under a chaige of mal-administralion of public affairs. 

3. See sketch of (Litton Mather. 

4. We havj nonce 1 ilu eii'ccts of this delusion, in a note on page ?'^. We may ad 1 hor:", that f uni-^h- 
meiits for witchcriif were first sanctione 1 by the Romish Chuich a little more than threo hu;idie>l years 
ago. Henry the Eighth made the practice of witchcraft a capital oifence ; and professional " witch 
hunters" were common in Great Britain. Even th3 learned Sir Matthew Hale, one of the brightest 
©rnaments of the English judiciary, repeatedly tried and condemned p^sons accused cf "^itcheraft. 



JOHN CARROLL. 49 



EZRA STILES. 

A FEW weeks before the British under Governor Tryon, entered New Haven, 
in Connecticut, with incendiary intent, a diminutive man of fifty years, 
with a face beaming witli benevolent emotions, and a heart burning with love 
for his country and his race, was elected President of Yale College. It was 
Ezra Stiles, a most excellent Christian scholar, who was born at North Haven, 
on the 15th of December, 1727. He was educated at Yale, where he was grad- 
uated in 1742. He possessed a clear intellect, brilliant genius, and remarkable 
grace in deportment. He became a tutor in the College, and prepared himself 
for the Christian ministry. Ill health afflicted him, and with it came a state of 
mental suffering which almost made shipwreck of his character. He doubted 
the divinity of Christianity, and turned to the law as his chosen profession for 
life. Tiiorough investigations of the subject of revealed religion resulted, as 
usual, in convincing him that the teachings of Jesus proceeded from the great 
Father of us all. Under this conviction, Mr. Stiles resumed his clerical studies, 
and became a shining apostle of truth, as pastor of a Congregational society in 
Newport, Rhode Island, in 1755. 

When the storm of the Revolution burst over Narraganset Bay and vicinity, 
and Rhode Island became a prey to the British invaders, Mr, Stiles' congregation 
was dispersed, and he preached in various places, until the year 1777, when, on 
the resignation of Dr. Daggett, he was elected President of Yale College. It 
was a wise choice, for his fame as a classical and Oriental scholar, and a thorough 
disciphnarian, had reached to Europe. He already corresponded extensively 
wnth leading men of science and learning in the old world, and he has ever been 
regarded as the most accomplished scholar who has yet filled the presidential 
chair of " Old Yale." He occupied that important seat until his death, which 
occurred on the 12th of May, 1795, when he was in the sixty-eighth year of his 
age. Dr. Stiles left a very interesting manuscript journal, which has never been 
published. It is in the library of Yale College. 



~* * * 



JOHN CAKKOLL. 

IT is a fact worthy of notice, that the Maryland charter, granted by King 
Charles the First, in 1632, to Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic gentleman 
of fortune and influence, was the first of all the royal patents granted for settle- 
ments in America, which guaranteed freedom of thought and worship to all 
who professed a belief in Christ. Then came Baltimore's descendant (Leonard 
Calvert), with a Roman Catholic colony, and first settled that beautiful country 
"between North and South Virginia;" (named Maryland, after Henrietta Maria, 
the Queen of Charles the First,) and to this day, men of that faith have held a 
controlling influence in the affairs of the colony and state, in civil, military, 
political, and religious life. One of the most eminent lights of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church in Maryland, was John Carroll, a relative of one of the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence, and for many years a faithful and highly 
esteemed archbishop, of the archiepiscopal see of Baltimore. He was born on 
the 8th of January, 1735, at Upper Marlborough, in Maryland, and was remark- 
able for his docility in childhood, and activity of mind during his earlier years. 
At the age of thirteen he was sent to the college of St. Omer, in French Flan- 
ders, where he remained until he was transferred to the Jesuits' college, at Liege, 



50 



JOHN" CARROLL. 




six years afterward. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1769, renounced all 
claims to the estate left him by his father, and then became a teacher at St. 
Oraer, and afterward at Liege, Jn 1773, the Jesuits were expelled from France, 
and he was obliged to abandon his professorsliip in the college at Bruges, to 
which he had been lately appointed, and retire to England, He wrote an able 
vindication of the Jesuits, but it availed nothing, for he dared not print it, and 
the manuscript is lost. In England, the accomplislied young ecclesiastic became 
secretary to the Jesuit Fathers there. He also accompanied the son of Lord 
Stourton (an English nobleman) on a continental tour, as governor, during 
which time he kept an interesting journal.' On his return to England he be- 
came a resident in Lord Arundel's family. The quarrel between England and 
her colonies was now waxing warm, and Mr. Carroll returned to his native 
country, in 1775. He immediately commenced the duties of his office of priest 
in his native county. 

Mr, Carroll was now called to other duties. Congress was very desirous of 
winning Canada to the confederation of the American colonies against the 



1. This journal is published in the BioRvaphy of Archbishop Carroll, written by his nephew, John 
Carroll Brent, and published, in Baltimore, in 18i3. 



JAMES EDWAr.D OGLETHORPE. 51 

mother government, or at least to obtain its neutrality ; and for that purpose, 
appointed Dr, Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll, commissioners to 
proceed thither, to confer with the leading men there. Father Carroll was in- 
vited to accompany them, because his sacred office, his thorough acquaintance 
with the French language, and his conceded talent, would be of great service. 
The mission proved unsuccessful, however, and the devoted priest returned to 
his ministerial labors. Throughout the war, he was attached to the patriot 
cause, yet he did not neglect his religious duties. His talent and devotion were 
widely known; and in 17SG, ho was appointed vicar-general, and took up his 
rjsidenc3 at Baltimore. At that time his church was in a languishing state in 
America; but, like Dr. White, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Mr. Carroll 
labored assiduously for the growth of his Zion, and may be justly called the 
Father of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Ho was consecrated 
a Bishop (the first for the United States) in 1790; and the following year ho 
founded the college at Georgetown. The whole Republic was then iDut one 
diocese, under the title of the see of Baltimore. Under his fostering care, and 
the tolerant principles of our government, the church thrived, and men of every 
creed regarded Bisliop Carroll as one of the best men of the daj-. Congress, by 
unanimous vote, invited him to deliver an eulogy on the death of Washington, 
and that service was admirably performed in St. Peter's church, in Baltimore, 
on the 22d of February, 1800. In 1808, Baltimore was erected into a metro- 
politan see. Four suffragan bishops were created, and Dr. Carroll became Arch- 
bishop. With every ad~htional duty laid upon him, the venerable prelate's zeal 
seemed to increase, and he labored faithfully untd his death, which occurred on 
the 3d of December, 1815, at the ago of eighty years. 



JAMES EDWARD OGEETHORPE. 

THE name of Oglethorpe ought to be held in grateful remembrance as one of 
the noblest of the colonizers of our beautiful land, for he came not hither 
for personal gain, but for the purpose of perfecting a benevolent scheme which 
his tender heart and sound judgment had conceived. He was born in Surrey, 
England, on the 21st of December, 1G98. He was educated for the military 
profession, and became an aide-de-camp to the great Prince Eugene. While a 
representative in Parliament, in 1728, he was placed upon a committee to inquire 
into the condition of imprisoned debtors in Great Britain. His benevolent heart 
was pained- at the recitals of woe that fell upon his ears. The virtuous and tho 
good were alike cast into loathsome prisons. A glorious idea was awakened 
in his mind; and in 1729, he submitted to Parliament a plan for establishing a 
military colony south of the Savannah river, as a barrier between the Carolinians 
and the Spaniards in Florida, to be composed of the virtuous debtors then in 
prison throughout the kingdom. The plan was heartily approved. A royal 
charter for twenty-one years was granted to a corporation " in trust for the poor," 
to establish a colony to be called Georgia, in honor of King George the Second, 
then on tho English throne. Oglethorpe was a practical philanthropist ; and 
when sufficient money had been subscribed, and the emigrants were almost 
ready for departure, he offered to accompany them as governor. He went up 
the Savannah river early in 1733, and upon Yamacraw Bluff he held a "talk" 
with some of the Creek cluefs; and there he founded the city of Savannah. In 
the prosecution of his benevolent enterprise he crossed the ocean several times. 
His colony rapidly increased, and within eight years twenty-five hundred settlers 



52 JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. 

were sent over by the trustees, at an expense of four hundred thousand dollars. 
The jealousy of the Spaniards at St. Augustine was aroused, and they menaced 
the Georgia colony with war. Oglethorpe promptly built forts in the direction 
of Florida, and by skillful mihtary movements, including some fighting, he kept 
back the enem}-, and secured permanency to his colony. 

Oglethorpe took final leave of Georgia in 1743 and in 1745 was promoted to 
the rank of Brigadier-general in the British army. He was employed, under the 
Duke of Cumberland, in quelling the Scotch rebellion of 1745; and in 1747, he 
was promoted to Major-general. When General Gage, who was governor of 
Massachusetts, and commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, went 
to England in 1775, the supreme command in this country was offered to Ogle- 
thorpe. The merciful conditions upon which, alone, he would accept the ap- 
pointment did not please the ministry, and general Howe was sent. Oglethorpe 
died at liis seat at Grantham Hah, on the 30th of June, 1785, at the ago of 
eighty-seven years. 



JOHN SINGLETON COPLP^Y. 

THE fine arts were but little appreciated and less practiced in America, pre- 
vious to the revolution ; and tliose artists of American birth who became 
famous, obtained their laurel-crowns in England. There West and Copley both 
gained fortune and great fame. The latter was born in Boston in 1738. He 
possessed a genius for art, and became a pupil of Smibert, a celebrated English 
portrait painter, who accompanied Dean Berkeley to Rhode Island. Smibert 
settled in Boston when Berkeley returned to England, where ho married and 
died. Copley was his only student who became proficient ; and after his master's 
death, in 1751, he stood alone in his profession. Ho painted many full-length 
portraits, and a lucrative and honorable career was opening before Ifim, Avhen the 
early storm-clouds of the revolution began to appear. His business waned, and, 
in 1769, ho went to England. This circumstance, and the fact that his father-in- 
law was one of the consignees of the East India Company's tea, which was 
destroyed in Boston Harbor in 1773, caused him to be classed among refugee 
loyalists. He was patronized by Benjamin West, then in the meridian glory of 
his renown; and in 1770, ho was admitted a member of the Eoyal Academy, 
then lately established under the auspices of the young king. He visited Boston 
in 1771, where ho remained several months, and then returned to England. In 
3 774, he went to Italy; and on his return to England in 1770, he there met his 
wife and children, whom he had left in Boston. They had come witli his father- 
in-law, who was one of the many loyalists who lied to Halifax when Washington 
drove the British from Boston in the Spring of that year. Copley devoted him- 
sjlf assiduously to portrait painting, for a livelihood, and occasionally produced 
an historical picture, which attested his fine talent for such composition. On 
the recommendation of West, he was employed to paint two pictures: one for 
the House of Lords, the other for the House of Commons. He chose for his 
subjects. The Death of Chatham, and Charles the First in Parliament. These 
established his fame, and he secured a fortune by his profession. His name-sake 
son, who was born in Boston, in 1772, ho educated for the bar. It was a wise 
choice, for he became as eminent in the profession of the law, as his father had 
in painting. He was rapidly rising in honor when his father died, suddenly, 
on the 25th of September, 1815, at the age of seventy-seven years. Twelve 
years later, the Boston-born son of Copley became Lord Chancellor of England, 
and was elevated to the peerage, with the title of Lord Lyndhurst. 



WILLIAM WHITE. 



6S 



^^~^—^i. 




€/y?Y^6'^o,,^ i^y^u'. 



^-^ 



WILLIAM WHITE. 



BECAUSE the Established Church of England AYas always inseparable from 
the throne, episcopacy was regarded with jealous fear by the great body 
of American colonists, and every attempt to establish it in the New World failea, 
until after the revolution. Episcopal ministers in America could obtain ordina- 
tion in England and Scotland, only, until 1785, when Dr. Seabury was consecrated 
a bishop. William White, the son of a sound Philadelphia lawyer, was the 
second who received that exalted honor in the church, in America. He was 
born in Philadelphia, on the 4th of April, 1748, and entered the college in that 
city, at the age of fourteen years. He had serious religious impressions at the 
age of sixteen years, and "these were greatly deepened by the persuasive elo- 
quence of Whitefield, in 1763. Young White was graduated at the age of 
eighteen, and soon afterward commenced the study of theology. In October, 
1770, he embarked for Europe, and with letters to the Bishop of London, he 
made application to that prelate for deacon's orders. He was successful ; and 
after remaining eighteen months in England, and becoming acquainted with Dr. 
Johnson, Groldsmith, and other men of letters, he received priest's orders. He 
was ordained in April, 1772, and in June embarked for America. In the Autumn 
of that year, he was settled as assistant minister in the parish of Christ Church 
and St. Peter's, in Philadelphia; and for sixty-four years he was a faithful pas- 
tor in the church of his choice. Nor were his pious labors confined to the ser- 



54 WILLIAM WHITE. 



vices of religion alone : he was always foremost in every benevolent work that 
eonimended itself to his judgment. 

Surveying the disputes between the colonies and Great Britain, with intel- 
ligent vision, he early perceived the right; and unlike too many of the episcopal 
clergymen at that time, he warmly espoused the republican cause. His only 
sister was the wife of Robert Morris (the patriot and financier), and the outward 
pressure of circumstances, as well as internal convictions, guided his actions. 
He did not " beat the ecclesiastical drum " before the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence was promulgated, but on the Sunday following, he ceased officially pray- 
ing for the king, and soon took the oath of allegiance to the United States. 
Already he had off'ered up prayers in the hall of Congress ;' and when that body,' 
at the close of 1776, convened at Baltimore, he was chosen one of its chaplains.2 
In that capacity he continued to serve until the seat of government was removed 
to New York. When, again, under the Federal Constitution, the sessions of 
congress were held in Philadelphia, he acted as chaplain, and his labors in that 
field of duty ceased only when the seat of government was removed to Wash- 
ington city, in 1801. 

Mr. White was the only episcopal clergyman in Pennsylvania at the close of 
the revolution, and the church seemed on the verge of dissolution. Yet he 
labored with increasing zeal. He was called to the rectory of Christ Church 
and St. Peter's; and in 1783, the University of Pennsylvania gave him its first 
issued degree of Doctor of Divinity. At about that time he proposed the estab- 
lishment of an American Episcopal Church, on such a basis, that ministers might 
be appointed by a convention of clergymen and laymen, without the aid of 
bishops. The proposition startled many who could not conceive of the existence 
of ''a church Avithout a bishop," but was warmly seconded by those who loved 
religion for its own sake. The acknowledgment of the independence of the 
United States, soon afterward, changed the aspect of affairs. Through the ex- 
ertions of Dr. White, a general convention of delegates from the churches^ 
met in Philadelphia, in October, 1784. He presided; and then and there the 
broad foundations of the Episcopal Church, in America, were laid. At the 
request of the American churches, Drs. White and Provost proceeded to England 
in the Spring of 178(3 ; and on the 4th of February, 1787, they were consecrated 
bishops, the former for the diocese of Pennsylvania, and the latter for that of 
New York. From that time, episcopal consecration in the United States was 
performed at home ; and from Bishop White, nearl}^ all of the American prelates, 
consecrated during his life, received the sacred office. For about thirty years 
he performed the duties of his episcopate without assistance; but in 1827, the 
diocese of Pennsylvania becoming very extensive, and as the infirmities of age 
were pressing hard upon the venerable prelate, an assistant bishop was elected. 
Yet he continued his labors until the last, as presiding bishop of the church in, 
the United States. In 1835, when the church sent missionaries to China, he| 
prepared instructions for them ; and that paper shows that his mental vigor was 
unimpaired, although the hand that wrote it was eighty -eight j^ears old. It was 
among the last official labors of his long and useful life. In June, the following 
year, that devoted patriarch preached his last sermon; and on the 17th of the 
next month, his spirit ascended to the New Jerusalem. In his writings, and in 
his example, Bishop White still lives, and the church yet feels his conservative 
influence. 

1. It has been erroneously sta'ed that he was the first chaplain of the Continental Congress. That 
honor belongs to Rev. Jacob Duche. 

2. The other was Rev. Patrick AUisoa, minister of the Presbyterian Church in Baltimore. They were 
chosen on the 2ad of December, 1776. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 55 




OKOROE WASHINQTON, 

FIRST IN War — first in Peace — first in the hearts of his Countrymen 
— was a just sentiment uttered half a century ago by the foster-son' of the 
Great Patriot, when speaking of the character of his noble guardian. And the 
hand of that son was the first to erect a monumental stone in memory of The 
Pathcr of his Countrj', upon which was inscribed: Here, the IItii of Febru- 
ary [0. S.l, 1732, George Washington was born. That stone yet lies on the 
site of his birth-place, in Westmoreland county, Virginia, near the banks of the 
Potomac. The calendar having been changed, 2 we celebrate his birth-day on 
the 22d of February. 

George Washington was descended fi'om an old and titled famil}'- in Lan- 
cashire, England, and was the eldest child of his father, by Mary Ball, his second 
wife. He died v/hen George was little more than ten years of age, and the 
guidance of the future Leader, through the dangers of youthhood, devolved upon 
his mother. She was fitted for the service ; and during his eventful life, Wash- 
ington regarded the early training of his mother witli the deepest gratitude. 
He received a common English education, and upon that, a naturally thoughtful 
and right-conditioned mind, laid the foundation of future greatness. Truth and 
justice were the cardinal virtues of his character.^ He was always beloved by 
his young companions, and was always chosen their leader in military plays. 
At the age of fourteen years, he wished to enter the navy, but yielded to the 
discouraging persuasions of his mother; and when he was seventeen years old, 
ho was one of the most accomplished land surveyors in Virginia. In the forest 
rambles incident to his profession, ho learned much of the topography of the 
country, habits of the Indians, a.nd life in the camp. These we're stern but 
useful lessons of great value in his future life. 

Young Washington was appointed one of the adjutants-general of his state at 
the ago of nineteen, but soon resigned his commission to accompany an invalid 
half-brother to the West Indies. Two years later, when the French began to 
build forts southward of Lake Erie, he was sent by the royal governor of Vir- 
ginia, to demand a cessation of such hostile movements. He performed the 
delicate mission with great credit; and so highly were his services esteemed, 
that wlien, in 1755, Braddock came to drive the French from the vicinity of the 
Ohio, Washington was chosen his principal aid. The young Leader had already 

1. George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Mrs. Washir.gion, and Adopted son of the distin- 
guished patriot. 

2. In consequence of the difference between the ohl Roman year and the true solar year, of a little 
more than eleven minutes, the astronomical equinox fell back that amount of time, each uniinr.I cycle, 
toward the beginning of the year. It fell on the 21st of March, at tlie time of the council of Nice, in 
323. Pope Gregory the Thirteenth reformed the calendar in 1£82 (when the equinox fell on the 11th of 
March,) by suppressing ten days in the calendar, and thus restoring the equinox to the 2lst of March. 
The Protestant states of Europe adhered to the old calendar, until 1700 ; and popular prejudice in Eng- 
land opposed Ihe alterations, until 1752, when the Julian calendar, called Old Style, was abolished by 
Pailiament. The retrogression since (iregory's (ime made it necessary to drop 11 days, instead of ten. 
Now the difference is about twelve days, so that Washington's birth-day, according to the New Style, is 
on the 23d of February. 

3. Young Washington was playing in a field one day with another boy, when he leaped upon an un- 
tamed colt belonging to his mother. The friglitened animal used such great exertions to get rid of his 
rider, that he burst a blood vessel and died. George went immediately to his mother, and gave her a 
truthful relation of all that had happened. This is a i.oblo example for all boys. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 



been in that wilderness at the head of a military expedition, and performed his 
duty so well, that he was publicly thanked by the Virginia legislature. Brad- 
dock was defeated and killed, and his whole arn)y escaped utter destruction only 
through the skill and valor of Colonel Washington, in directing their retreat.' 
He continued in active military service most of the time, until the close of 1758, 
when he resigned his commission, and retired to private life. 

At the age of twenty-seven years, Washington married the beautiful Martha 
Custis, the young widow of a wealthy Virginia planter, and they took up their 
abode at Mount Vernon, on the banks of the Potomac, an estate left him by his 
half-brother. There he quietly pursued the business of a farmer until the Spiing 
of 1774, when he was chosen to fill a seat in the Virginia legislature. The 
storm of the great revolution was then gathering ; and toward the close of Summer 
he was elected a delegate to the first Continental Congress, which assembled 
at Philadelphia, in September. He was a delegate the following year, when the 
storm burst on Bunker Hill, after the first lightning flash at Lexington; and by 
the unanimous voice of his compatriots he was chosen commander-in-chief of 
the army of freemen which had gathered spontaneously around Boston. 

For eight long years Washington directed the feeble armies of the revolted 
colonies, in their struggle for independence. That was a terrible ordeal through 
which the peoj^le of America passed ! During the night of glcom which brooded 
over the hopes of the patriots from the British invasion of New York, until the 
capture of Cornwallis, he was the lode-star of their hopes. And when the 
blessed morning of Peace dawned at Yorktown, and the last hoof of the oppress- 
or had left our shores, Washington was hailed as the Deliverer of his people ; 
and he was regarded by the aspirants for freedom in the eastern hemisphere as 
the brilliant day-star of promise to future generations. 

During all the national perplexities after the return of peace, incident to 
financial embarrassments and an imperfect system of government, Washington 
was regarded, still, as the public leader; and when a convention assembled to 
modify the existing government, he was chosen to preside over their delibera- 
tions. And again, when the labors of that convention resulted in the formation 
of our Federal Constitution, and a president of the United States was to be 
chosen, according to its provisions, his countrymen, with unanimous voice, called 
him to the highest place of honor in the gift of a free people. 

Washington presided over the affairs of the new Bepublic for eight years, and 
those the most eventful in its history. A new government had to be organized 
without any existing model, and new theories of government were to be put in 
practice for the first time. The domestic and foreign policy of the country had 
to be settled by legislation and diplomacy, and many exciting questions had to 
be met and answered. To guide the ship of state through the rocks and quick- 
sands of all these difficulties required great executive skill and wisdom. Wash- 
ington possessed both; and he retired from the theatre of public life without the 
least stain of reproach upon his judgment or his intentions. 

The great Patriot and Sage enjoyed the repose of domestic life, at Mount 
Vernon, in the midst of an affectionate family and the almost daily congratula- 
tions of visitors, for almost three years, when the effects of a heavy cold closed 
his brilliant career, in death. He ascended to the bosom of his God on the 14th 
of December, 1799, when almost sixty-eight years of age.^ 

1. Braddook persisted in fighting: (ha Indians according to the military tactics of Eiircpe ; and when 
Washington modestly .' Liggested (he policy of adopting the Indian method of warfaic, it is said that 
Braddook haughtily mswered, " What ! a provincial buskin teach a British general how to fight !'' 

•2. His bj.iy was placed in the old vault, at Mount Vernon. Afterwards, in accordancK with his instructions, a 
new vault wns cons rucied, with a spacious vestibule. In the latter may be seen two white marble cottins <ontain- 
ing tho remains of Washington and his wife. 



FRANCIS HOPKINSON. 




FRANCIS HOPKINSON. 

THE bud of a keen wit and zealous patriot appeared when, at almost midnight 
1 on the 3d of September, 1738, Francis Hopkinson was born in the city of 
Philadelphia. His father was a fine scholar, and an intimate friend of Dr. 
Franklin; his mother was a woman of great refinement, and niece of the Bishop 
of Worcester. They came from England immediately after their marriage, 
settled lu Philadelphia, and died there. When Francis was fourteen years old, 
his mother was left a widow with a large family of children. She discharged 
the holy duties of her station with fidelity and success. 

Francis Hopkinson was the first scholar and first graduate of the College of 
Fhiladdphia, of which his father was one of the founders. He was an honor to 
the institution. The profession of the law was his choice, and he studied in the 
office of Benjamin Chew, afterward the eminent chief justice of Pennsylvania. 
He was fjnd of literary and scientific pursuits, and for tiie purpose of expanding 
and strengthening his fiiculties by contact with eminent men, he went to Eng- 
Jand, and resided with the Bishop of Worcester, about two years. Soon after 
his return, in 1768, ho married Ann Borden, tlie accomplished daughter of a 
wealthy gentleman, the founder of Bordentown, New Jersey ; and that became 
his place of residence. His country was then agitated by the premonitions of 
the approaching Revolution, and his active mind often found powerful expreasiou 

3* 



68 THOMAS HUTCHINSON. 

through his pen. His first pubhcation, of rfloment, was a small pamphlet en- 
titled, A Pretty Story, which is said to have had great influence on the pubhc 
mind, in quickening its perceptions of the true relations existing between Great 
Britain and her colonies. It abounds with fine specimens of imagination, com- 
position, and elegant wit. So in his conversation ; it was ever marked by great 
refinement. He was never known to use a profane word, or utter an expression 
that would make a lady blush. 

When the colonies had drawn the sword and cast away the scabbard, Mr. 
Hopkiuson, who had been an unflinching patriot from the beginning, was chosen 
a delegate to represent New Jersey in the Continental Congress. In that ca- 
pacity he signed the Declaration of Indtinndence, and soon afterward received 
the commission of Judge of Admiralty, for Pennsylvania. While in that station 
he wrote that exceedingly witty poem, entitled The Battle of the Kegs.^ 

When the Federal Constitution was before the people. Judge Ilopkinson be- 
came one of its most zealous and eloquent supporters, with tongue and pen ; and 
in 1790, President Washington appointed him a judge of the United States 
court, for the district of Pennsylvania, under the new organization of the judi- 
ciary. He did not bear the ermine and its honors long, for on the 9th of May, 
1791, he was suddenly smitten with epilepsy, which terminated his life in the 
course of a few hours. 

Mr. Hopkinson's genius was versatile. He was proficient in the knowledge 
of music, mathematics, mechanics, and chemistry. As a satirical writer he has 
few peers ; and he held a front rank as a statesman and jurist. His works, 
arranged by himself, were published in three volumes, after his death, and are 
now exceedingly rare. 



THOMAS HUTCHINSON. 

MANY good men, whose actions have been governed by the purest and loftiest 
motives, have been made the targets of scorn by partisan writers ; and it 
is difficult, wlien perusing the pages of history, to judge correctly of the real 
characters of tlie prominent men whose actions make up the sum of the record. 
Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts during some of the most excit- 
ing scenes of the early years of the revolutionary struggle, is generally regarded 
with contempt and indignation by readers of American history, because, like 
thousands of conscientious men, he chose the royal side in the controversy. He 
was born in Massachusetts, in 1711, and was graduated at Harvard College in 
17:^7. His father had been a public man, and Thomas studied English constitu- 
tional law, with the intention of becoming a statesman. He first enibai'ked in 
commercial pursuits, however, but did not succeed. For ten consecutive years 
he was elected a member of the Massachusetts Assembly, and he was Speaker 
of that body for three years. In 1752, he succeeded his uncle as judge of pro- 
bate; and from 1749 until 1756, he was a member of the governor's council. 
In 1758, he was elected lieutenant-governor of the province, and held that office 
until 1771, when he was appointed governor. In the meanwhile he had held 
the office of chief justice, after the death of Judge Sewall, in 1760. That office 

1. A man, named Bushnell, of Conencticut, invented a submarine explosive apparatus, by which 
ships might be blown up. An ineffectual attempt was made to blow up the Eagle, (General Howe's flag- 
ship, in the hirbor of New York, in 1770. In 1778, while iho British had possession of Philadelphia, 
and several of (heir ships we-e 1 ving in the Delawa-e, f^o-ne Whigs at Bordentown prepared several kegs 
of powder with a similar machine, and sent them flo'iting dr>wi the current of the river, toward the 
Briti.sh shipping. They ca'isel great .alam, nnd in commemor,aiio-i of thflt event the Battle oftheKeffa 
was written. The author's son, Joseph, w.o'e iho popular i.a.iDr.al song, Hail Columbia. 



NATHANIEL GREENE. 59 

had been promised to the elder Otis, and the disappointment gave a keener 
point to the opposition of the younger Otis to the person and administration of 
Hutchinson, wlieu the dispute between Great Britain and her colonies was pro- 
gressing. Other things had made liutcliinson unpopular witli many of the people. 
In 1748, he wao chietiy instrumental in abolishing the paper currency of the 
colony, and substituting gold and silver therefor ; and he favored the law granting 
writs of assistance, or general search-warrants for contraband goods, by which no 
man's house was safe from prying oflicials. He was also active, with Governor 
Bernard, in bringing troops to Boston, in 17G8, to awe the people; and much of 
the odium of the massacre in Boston, in March, 1770, was cast upon him.' These 
things created a strong popular feeling against him; and when, in 1772, certain 
letters which he had written to a former member of Parliament, were sent back 
from England to Boston by Dr. Fraiiklin, and published, in which he gave 
advice, in disparagement of popular liberty in America, the people could scaicely 
be restraiue 1 from manifesting their indignation by inflicting personal ^■io]ence 
upon him. He was compelled to leave the country in 1774, when he went to 
England. Ho died at Brompton, in that realm, on the 3d of June, 1780, at the 
age of sixty-nine years. However much Governor Hutchinson sinned against 
our republican faith, his memoi'y deserves to be revered for his faithful labors in 
the field of historical research. He prepared, with great care, a History of 
Massachusetts, from the earliest settlements in 1628, until 1760. The first volume 
was published in 1760, and the second in 1767. He had also prepared much 
more historical matter concerning tlie colony ; and his unpublished manuscripts 
were procured for publication in this country, thirty years after his death. His 
History of Massachusetts is standard authority. 



NATHANIEL GREENE. 

THIS ablest of "Washington's generals was the sou of an anchor-smith at "War- 
wick, Rhode Island, where the futui'e hero was born, in 1740. Nathaniel 
was trained to his father's business, and was taught to love God and his neigh- 
bor by his pious Quaker mother. "While yet a boy, he acquired some knowledge 
of Latin ; and before his apprenticeship expired, his little earnings, judiciously 
used, had furnished him with a small library. Contrary to Quaker teachings, 
he loved the military ai't, read much of military history with delight, and when 
the clang of arms came from Lexington and Concord, he went forth to act mili- 
tary history, in a nobler cause than warriors usually engage in. At the age of 
twenty-one years, he had been called to a seat in the Rhode Island legislature; 
at the age of thirty-five years, he led to Roxbury, after the affair at Lexington, 
the three regiments which formed the army of observation, raised by his State 
for the defence of the country. The Quakers disowned him, and Wasliington 
and his country adopted him. His State had made him a Brigadier; Congress 
appointed him a Major-general in the Continental army. He was sick during 
the battle on Long Island, in August, 1776, but was in the engagements at 
Trenton, Princeton, Brandy wine, arid Germantown, during the next fifteen 
months. He was honored with the important office of Quarter-master general 
in March, 1778, arjd in June he fought gallantly on the plains of Monmouth. 
In the Autumn of 1780, he took command of the remnant of the southern army 

1. A dispute between seme o*" the people and the troops occurred. A larpe crowd grathered in the 
Btreet&v the troops were drf\wii i.p in Ijtie, and after being: buffeted with words and missiles, for somr 
time, some of (he soldiers fired. Three nersc.uo i.i Ihe crowd were killed. It was made thy occasion 
of great indignation against the trooivi aud j.'Ov'fojnui^ut otficials. 



60 



NATHANIEL GREENE. 




which had been defeated and dispersed at Camden, under General Gates ; and 
before the close of 1781, he had driven the British from every strong interior 
position, in the South, and confined them to the cities of Charleston and Savan- 
nah. During that year, his famous retreat before Lord Cornwallis, across North 
Carolina, and the battles at Guilford, Camden, Ninety-Six, and Eutaw Springs, 
w^ere achieved ; and the following year he marched victoriously into Charleston, 
amid the booming of cannons, the waving of handkerchiefs in fair hands from 
balconies and windows, and shouts of welcome ! from crowds of liberated free- 
men. At the same hour, the white sails of a British fleet, bearing the last hos- 
tile foot from our shores, south of New York, were glistening in the evening 
sun. And yet the last resting-place, on earth, of this patriot and hero, is un- 
known to this generation. The grateful Georgians gave him a fine estate in 
that land of the orange and palm ;' and while there, in June, 1786, he was over- 
come by the heat of the sun, fell and expired. His remains were buried in a 
vault in Savannah, but there is nothing to distinguish them from the common 

1. In testimony of the grateful appreciation of his services in the South, the Legislature of South 
Carolina voted him fifty thousand dollars ; that of North Carolina, twenty-five thousand dollars ; and 
of Georgia, twenty-four thousand acres of land, in the vicinity of Savannah. 



ZABDIEL BOYLSTON. 61 



relics of mortality around them. Even the particular vault wherein they were 
deposited is unknown, and they are lost to humanity forever. His memory, 
however, shall bloom, ever fresh, in the hearts of his countrymen, and his fame, 
less perishable than brass or marble, will endure while freedom has a temple or 
a worshipper. Congress ordered a monument to be erected to his memory at 
the seat of the Federal Gcernment, but the stone for it is yet in the quarry.' 



ZABDIEL BOYLSTON. 

INOCULATION for the small-pox, so as to ward off the violence of that foul 
and fetal disease, was first practiced in England, in 1721, by Lady Mary 
Wortley Montague, whose son had been successfully treated, in that way, at 
Constantinople. She tried the experiment upon seven capital convicts, and was 
successful. At about the same time, and while ignorant of the fact of Lady 
Mary's operations. Doctor Boylston introduced the practice at Boston.- He was 
a man of courage and benevolence ; a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, where 
he was born in 1680. He studied medicine and surgery at Boston, and soon 
became an eminent practitioner and man of fortune. 

Dr. Boylston's attention was first called to the subject of inoculation by Dr. 
Cotton Mather, who had read an account of its successful practice at Smyrna, 
in the East. The small-pox was then raging with fearful fatality in Boston; 
but of all the physicians there, Boylston was the only one who possessed suf- 
ficient courage to try the experiment. On the 2Gth of June, 1721, he inocu- 
lated his little son, aged six years, and two servants. He was successful, and 
began to enlarge the practice. The other pliysicians opposed him, and in the 
course of the next month the selectmen of Boston forbade its practice. At that 
moment six venerable clergymen of the city gave their influence in its favor, 
and benevolence and good sense triumphed over prejudice and ignorance. In 
the course of a year he inoculated two hundred and forty-seven persons in 
Boston; and of two hundred and eighty -six inoculated by himself and physi- 
cians in neighboring towns, only six died, while of five thousand seven hundred 
and fifty-nine persons who had the small-pox the natural way, eigld hundred and 
forty-four died. Notwithstanding this triumphant vindication of the utility of 
the practice, Dr. Boylston was mercilessly persecuted by other physicians ; and 
the common people became so exasperated against him, that it was unsafe for him 
to be seen out after dark. They went so far, at one time, as to parade the streets 
with halters, declaring their mtention to hang him,^ and those who submitted 
to his practice were grossly insulted. Dr. Mather and others adhered to him, 
and he triumphed. 

Dr. Boylston went to England in 1725. The fame of his practice preceded 
him. and he was honored with membership in the Royal Society. When he 
returned home, prejudice had given way to common sense ; and to the end of 

1. At West Point are two brass caniionR, captured from the British, and presented to fxcneral Greene. 
On them is the following inscription : "Taken from the British aimy, and presented, by order of the 
United States, in Congress assembled, to Major-general Greene, as a monument of Ilifir high sense of 
the wisdom, fortitude, and military taler.ts whicli di.siinguished his command in the Southern Depart- 
ment, and of the eminent services which, amid complicated dangers and diiBculties, he pe: formed for 
his connlry. October ye 18th, I'/SS." 

2. The safer preventive practice of vaccination, now nniversally used instead of inoculati >n, waa 
discovered by Edward Jenner in 1776. Among tliose who first introduced llie rew practice iato this 
country, was Doctor Eneas M'lnfon, of Connecticut. lie used vacciration in \'^'2. 

3. His alleged offence was the spreading of a loathsome disease throughout the community ; and it 
was also argued that the small-pox being a judgment sent upon the people for their sins, any eudeaTor 
to avert the blow would oti'end God still more I 



62 WILLIAM BRADFORD. 

his days he stood at the head of his profeSsion in America. Bodily infirmity 
induced him to retire to liis patrimonial estate at Brookline, where he engaged 
in literary and scientific pursuits in connection with agriculture. He had the 
pleasure of seeing inoculation universally practiced. On the 1st of March, 
1766, he said to his friends, "My work in this world is done, and my hopes of 
futurity are brightening;" and then closed his eyes forever. 



WILLIAM BRADFORD. 

" THANK God there are no free schools in this province, nor printing press; 

X and I hope we shall not have for these hundred years," said Berkeley, 
the royal governor of Virginia, in 1671. His hope was almost realized in respect 
to the press ; but in other colonies that miglity worker, then in its childhood, 
began its labors early. More than thirty years before the utterance of these 
sentiments, a press had been established at Cambridge, Massachusetts; and 
sixteen years afterward, William Bradford, who came to America with William 
Penn, set up a press and printed an Almanac at Philadelphia, or in its imme- 
diate vicinity. 

Mr. Bradford was a Quaker, and native of Leicestershire, England. He learned 
the printer's trade in London, and married the daughter of his master, through 
whom he became acquainted with George Fox, the founder of his sect.' The 
Almanac printed by him was for the year 1687, and was made at Burlington, 
New Jersey. He printed several controversial pamphlets, and among them was 
one by George Keith against some of the Quakers of Philadelphia. It was 
deemed seditious, and Keith and Bradford were arrested and imprisoned, in 1692. 
They were tried and acquitted; but having incurred the ill-will of the dominant 
party of Quakers, Bradford took up his residence in New Yoik the following year, 
where he was appointed government printer, and for a period of about thirty 
years he w-as the only practitioner of his art in that province. His first produc- 
tion was a folio volume of laws of the province. 

In the Autumn of 1725, Bradford commenced the publication of the first 
newspaper printed in that colony, which he called The Neiv Ycrk Gazette. John 
Peter Zenger, one of his apprentices, became a business con j etitor in 1726; and 
in 1733 he, too, published a newspaper, called The New York Weelly Journal. 
Much enmity existed between them, and their respective papers bcciune the 
organs of the two political parties then existing in New Yoik. Biadlbid al- 
ways supported the government party, while Zenger spoke boldly for the 
people. 

Bradford had two sons, Andrew and William, whom he instructed in his art, r.nd 
made them partners in business. He owned a paper mill at Elizabethtown. New 
Jersey, in 1728, which is believed to have been the first one established in America. 
At the age of seventy years, he retired from business, and lived with his son, 
Andrew, until his death, which occurred on the 23d of May, 1752, when he was 
ninety-four years of age. He had been printer to the government more than 
fifty years ; and during his long life he had never been seriously sick. At the 
time of his death, it was announced in his Gazette, that "being quite worn out 
with old age and labor, his lamp of life went out for want of oil." 



1. Fci promulsated his peculHr tenets about 1650. He boldly condemned sin in high places ; and it 
was while admonishins; Justice Beniiet, of Derby, that he was first called a Quaker, because he lold 
that magistrate to quake and tremble at the tcord of the Lord. Fox came to Amenca m 1670. 



LINDLEY MURRAT 




LINDI.EY MURRAY. 

" |\f URRA.Y'S G-RAMMAR " is as widely known as the English language, arid 
ItL forms a part of the vision of school-days which comes up occasionally 
before the memory of every educated American. It emanated from an invalid, 
confined for sixteen years in a sick room. Ho was the son of an eminent Qua- 
ker merchant in the city of New York, but was born at Swetara, near Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania, in 1745, while his father was engaged in the vocation of a miller, 
there. 

While yet a small boy, Lindley Murray was placed in a school in Philadelphia, 
where he was thoroughly instructed in the English branches of education, by 
Ebenexer Kinnersly, a friend and correspondent of Dr. Franklin. He accom- 
panied his father to New York, and was eagerly engaged in the study of the 
Greek and Latin languages, preparatory to a collegiate course, when failing 
health compelled him to leave his books. . He entered his father's counting- 
room, but the routine of service there, and the restraints of a stern parent, be- 
came exceedingly irksome to him. He thirsted intensely for knowledge to bo 
derived from books ; and a punishment which he deemed unmerited, inflicted by 
his father's hand, was made an excuse for his sudden flight from home. For 
many weeks he was a close student in a boarding-school at Burlington, New 
Jersey, before his friends ascertained, by accident, his place of concealment. A 
reconciliation was effected, and Lindley returned to the drudgery of a merchant's 
desk. r 



64 JACOB LEISLEH. 



After much persuasion, young Murray's father permitted him to enter the law 
oflBee of Benjamin Kissam, as a student, where he enjoyed the fellowship of 
John Jay, then preparing for that brilliant public career upon which he soon 
afterward entered. His father gave him a fine law library, and Lindley Murray 
commenced the practice of his profession, in the city of New York, with prom- 
ises of great success. He married an amiable woman, and regarded himself 
as permanently settled for life, when feeble health admonished him to try a 
change of climate. He went to England, was greatly benefited, and sent for 
his family; but yearning for his native land, he returned in 1771. When the 
Wai' for Independence broke out, he acted consistently with the principles and 
discipline of the Society of Friends, cf which he was a valued member, and re- 
mained neutral and in retirement, at Islip, Long Island. His father died during 
the war,' and on the return of peace, Lindley went back to the city, resumed 
the mercantile business, which ho abandoned in \outh, purchased a beautiful 
country-seat on the Hudson, and seemed about to take rank with the merchant 
princes. Again ill-health warned him away from the changeable climate of 
New York. He went to England, purchased a beautiful estate in Yorkshire, 
and there gradually sunk into the confirmed invalid's chair. His malady was a 
disease of the muscles, which finally deprived him of the use of his limbs. For 
sixteen years ho was confined to his room, and it was during that long season 
of bodily affliction that he produced his popular English Grammar^ English 
Reader^ and several religious works. At his death, which occurred on the 16th 
of February, 182G, in the eighty-first year of his age, he left a fund, the interest 
of which was to bo devoted to the dittusion of religious sentiments in America. 
The Trustees faithfully execute that provision of his will, and have gratuitously 
distributed many thousands of his " Power of Religion on the Mind." They have 
just published Dymond's "Inquiry into the Accordance of "War with the Prin- 
ciples of Christianity," for the same purpose. 



JACOB LEI8LKR. 

THE public life of Jacob Leisler, the first martyr to the democratic faith in 
America, presents a picture of the active development of republican ideas 
which had taken root in the New World, and began to germinate, more than 
half a century before. Ho was a native of Frankfort, in Grcrmany, and came to 
America in 1 660. Ho first settled at Fort Orange (Albany), i:i New Nethcrland ; 
and about the time when the province passed into the hands of the English, and 
New Amsterdam became New York, he began commercial life in that city. 
While on a voyage to Europe, about the year 1675, he was made a prisoner by 
some Mediterranean pirates, and sold to a Turk, with seven others. He paid a 
high price for his ransom, and then returned to New York, where he became 
one of the most successful and influential merchants. In 1683, notwithstanding 
his well-known Protestant feelings, the Roman Catholic governor Dongan ap- 
pointed him one of the commissioners of the court of admiralty. He also had 
command of a militia corps, and wtis very popular. When, in the Spring of 
1689, the dethronement of James the Second was known, and changes took 
place in the governments of the several colonies, the people of New York imme- 
diately appointed a committee of safety, under whose direction Leisler was re- 

1. Ro'icrt Murray, the father of Li idley, owned one of the first three coaches introduced into the city 
of Njw Yor'.-, nhout ninety years ago. Another, owned hy Mr. Beekman, is yet well preserved, and in 
possession of his descendant, Hon. James W. Beekman. Tliere was much prejudice against coache*, 
when they were introduced, and IVIurj^iy called his " a leathern conveniency." His country seat was 
on land n«w known as Murray Hill, in the city of New York. 



JAMES BOWDOIN. 65 



quested to take charge of the fort, in the name of the new sovereigns, Wilham 
and Mary. Nicholson, the successor of Dongan, fled on board a vessel and 
departed, and the people consented to Leisler's assuming the powers of governor 
until a new one should be appointed by the crown. This act offended the 
magistrates and the aristocracy; and when Governor Sloughter arrived in 1691, 
Leisler was accused of high treason. His son-in-law, Milborne, who acted as 
his deputy, was included in the charge. Although Leisler surrendered his 
authority into the hands of the legally-appointed governor, yet, when he went 
in person to deliver up the keys of the fort, both he and Milborne were seized 
and cast into prison by those who had resolved on their dcsti uction. They were 
tried on a charge of treason, found guilty, and condemned to death. Sloughter 
felt the injustice of the sentence, and withheld his signature to their death- 
warrants. He was an inebriate, and at a dinner partv, given for the purpose, 
he became drunk, and while in that state, was induced, unconsciously, to put 
his name to the fatal instrument. Before he became sober, Leisler and Milborne 
were suspended upon a gallows on the verge of Beekman's swamp, near the 
spot where Tammany Hall now [1854] stands. These were the proto-martyrs 
of liberty in America. Their death lighted an intense flame of party spirit; and 
the pretence made by their enemies, that Leisler was inimical to the Protestant 
King and Queen, had not the shadow of a foundation. The fact that in 1689, 
he purchased a tract on Long Island Sound, in Westchester county, for the per- 
secuted Huguenots (which they named New Rochelle), was a sufficient refuta- 
tion of the false charge. Leisler's property, which the local government confis- 
cated, was afterward restored to his family. 



JAMES BOWDOIN. 

FROM the stock of the Huguenots, or French Protestants, who fled from France 
on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, came many noble men who shine 
as stars in the firmament of our political and social history. James Bowdoin, 
the eminent statesman and governor, was of tliat stock. He was born in Bos- 
ton on the 18th of August, 1727. His grandfather fled from France in 1685, 
and came to America by way of Ireland, two yeai's later, and settled at Fal- 
mouth (now Portland), in Maine. James was the son of an eminent merchant, 
and was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1745. He 
was remarkable for his application, while a student, and his deportment w^as 
always correct. He had just laid the foundation of a good character, when, at 
the age of twenty-one years, his father died, and left him an ample fortune. 
Yet that possession did not cause him to fold his hands in idleness. His thirst- 
ing mind sought out the pleasant fountains of knowledge; and soon after his 
marriage, in 1749, he commenced a system of literary and scientific icfcarch. 
He was elected to represent Boston in the General Court, in 1753, where his 
learning and eloquence soon made him a conspicuous leader. Three years after- 
ward, he was chosen to a seat in the Council, where he was a highly-respected 
member for many years. When grievances began to be complained of by the 
colonists, Bowdoin was found upon the side of the people, and for this oficnce, 
ho was refused a seat in the council, hy Governor Bernard, in 1769. Hutchinson, 
however, allowed him to take a scat at the council board, saying, "His opposi- 
tion to our measures will be less injurious here than in the house of represent- 
atives," to which the people had elected him. He was chosen a delegate to 
the first Congress in 1774, but the illness of his wife prevented his attendance. 



SAMUEL KIRKLAND. 



The following year he was chosen president of the council of Massachusetts, and 
he held that important office most of the time until the adoption of the State 
Constitution in 1780. He was president of the convention which formed that 
instrument; and in 1785, when John Hancock resigned the chair of chief 
magistrate of the State, Bowdoin was chosen to succeed him in office. It was 
during his administration that the troubles, known as Sha'i/s Rebellion, took place 
in Massachusetts. By his orders, four thousand troops were placed under the 
command of General Lincoln, to suppress the insurrection ; and he was one of 
the largest contributors to a voluntary subscription of money, which was raised 
in Boston, within a few hours, to pay the expenses of the troops. He was a 
member of the Massachusetts convention, called to deliberate on the Federal 
Constitution, and he gave that instrument his hearty support. Governor Bow- 
doin was a patron of letters. He subscribed liberally for the restoration of the 
library of Harvard College, destroyed in 1764; and from 1779 till 1784, ho was 
a fellow of the corporation. In 1780, ho was instrumental in founding the 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Boston ; and his fostering care was 
given to other societies, humane and scientilic. The University at Edinburgh 
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, and be was chosen a member 
of the Royal Societies of London and Dublin. He was a benevolent Christian, 
in the highest sense of the term; and in all his numerous writings fundamenta) 
truths of Christianity were prominently recognized. This eminent man died a\ 
Boston, in 1790, at the a-ge of sixty-three years. 



SAMUEL KIRKLAND. 

" TTOW beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those " who carry the 
-TL gospel of peace, love, and brotherhood to the dark-minded without the 
pale of civilization. Peerless among such faithful messengers, was Samuel 
Kirkland, who, for forty years, labored with untiring zeal among the pagans of 
central New York. Ho was born at Norwich, Connecticut, on the 1st of Decem- 
ber, 1741, and through life exhibited the indomitable courage, energy, and per- 
severance of his Scotch lineage. Of his childhood we knov/ very little. In 
early youth ho entered Dr. Wheelock's school at Lebanon, and prepared to be a 
missionary among the Indians. There he was much beloved for his gentleness, 
a quaUty which endeared him to his fellow-students at Princeton, where he pur- 
sued a collegiate course of studies from 1762 until 1764. Ho loft the institution 
baforo completing his education, and dwelt with the Seneca Indians from 1764 
until 1766. lie received his collegiate degree, however, in 1765; and in June, 
1766, he was ordained, at Lebanon, as a missionary to the Indians, under the 
sanction of the Scotch Society for propagating the gospel among the heathen. 
Ho entered upon his work in August, and made his residence amonf;' the Oneidas 
at their "council house," a little south-west of Fort Stanwix, now Rome. Thero 
lu built a house with his own hands, and labored day and night for the good 
of the poor Indians. Toil and exposure impaired his health, and he sought its 
restoration by passing the Summer of 1769 with his friends in Connecticut. In 
the Autumn he married a niece of Dr. Wheelock, and soon afterward he returned 
to his post of duty in the wilderness, accompanied by his excellent wife, as far 
as the house of General Herkimer, at the Little Falls of the Mohawk.' She re- 
mained there a few weeks, until her forest home was made comfortable ; and 

1. Early the following Summer, M ?. KirlOnnd smarted to v'sit her mother in Connecticut. She pro- 
ceeiel on horseback, but went ro further than (he house of General Herkimer, where she grave birth to 
twin sons, in August, 1770. Oac of these was afterwr.rd P.csideut Kirkland of Harvard College. 



SAMUEL KIRKLAND. 



67 




c/^/^/^^^^ 



then they commenced those joint missionary labors, which were exceedingly 
successful until the preparations of the "War for Independence were commenced. 
Those disturbances deranged their noble plans; and the growing insecurity of 
forest life caused Mr. Kirkland to fix the residence of his family at Stockbridge, 
in Western Massachusetts. Yet he did not desert his post, but labored on 
tlirougli all the dark scones of the seven years' war that ensued, not only for the 
spiritual benefit of the dusky tribes, but in unceasing endeavors to keep the Six 
j^ations* neutral. He succeeded with the Onoidas, only ; the other tribes be- 
came active allies of the British, .for the influence of Sir William Johnson and 
his flimily was greater than that of the missionary. 

Mr. Kirkland was chaplain at Fort Schuyler (formerly Fort Stanwix, now 
Rome, in Oneida county) for some time, and in that capacity he accompanied 
G-eneral Sullivan in his expedition from Wyoming, against the Senecas, in 1778. 
After that, ho was at Fort Schuyler and vicinity, or with his family at Stock- 
bridge, until peace was declared. In subsequent treaties with the Indians, he 
was very active and useful ; and when the field of his labors began again to 
whiten, under the blessed sun of peace, his family prepared to make their resi- 
dence in the Indian country. It was never accomplished, for Mrs. Kirkland 
sickened at the close of 1787,' and late in January following, she died. The be- 
reaved missionary left her grave for his harvest field in the wilderness, and toiled 

1. The Iroquois confederacy in the Slate of New York. It originally consisted of five tribes, namely, 
.Onondaga, Seneca, Oneida, Mohawk, and ("ayiiga. These were joined by their kindred in language, 
me Tusca;o.as of North Carolina, ia the early part of the last century. 



ANN LEE. 



on, year after year, in civil and religious duties. He accompanied a delegation 
of Senecas to Philadelphia, in 1790, and was rewarded by the conversion to 
Christianity of the great chief, Cornplanter, with whom he travelled, instructed 
and convinced. In 1791, he made a census of the Six Nations, and at the same 
time he succeeded in establishing an institution of learning, which was incor- 
porated in 1793, under the title of The Hamilton Oneida Academy. This was 
the origin of Hamilton College. Mr. Kirklaud continued his labors among the 
Oneidas until his death, which occurred, after a brief illness, at his residence in 
Paris, Oneida county, on the 28th of February, 1808, in the sixty-seventh year 
of his age. 



ANN LEE. 

FOUNDERS of sects become famous by their fruits, whether they be good or 
evil ; and in the consistent, upright character of followers, impostors have 
obtained canonization as saints. Of such as these was the immortal Ann Lee, 
the founder, in America, of the sect known as Shaking Quakers. She was born 
in Manchester, England, about the year 1736. Her father was a blacksmith, 
and she was taught the trade of cutting fur for hatters. She married young, 
and had four children, who all died in infancy. ■ At the age of twenty-two years, 
she became a convert to the doctrines of James Wardley, a Quaker, who preached 
the holiness of celibacy, and the wickedness of marriage, and whose followers, 
because of the great agitations of their bodies when religiously exercised, were 
called Shakers.' After nine years of discipline, she opened her mouth as a 
teacher; and in 1770, while confined in prison as a half-crazed fanatic, she pre- 
tended to have had a revelation of great spiritual gifts. She declared that in 
her dwelt the " "Word ;" and her followers say, " the man who was called Jesus, 
and the woman who was called Ann, are verily the two great pillars of the 
church." She was acknowledged to be a spiritual mother in Israel, and is known 
by the common appellation of " Mother Ann." Sho came to New York in 1774, 
with her brother and a few followers; and in the Spring of 1776, they settled 
at Niskayuna (nov/ Watervliet, opposite Troy), where the sect still flourishes. 
Some charged Mother Ann with witchcraft; and vigilant Whigs, knowing that 
she preached against war in every shape, suspected her of secret correspondence 
with her countrymen, the British. A charge of high treason was preferred 
against her, and she was imprisoned in Albany during the Summer of 1776. In 
the Autumn she was sent as far as Ponghkeepsie, with the intention of forward- 
ing her to New York, within the British lines. She remained a prisoner at 
Ponghkeepsie, until some time in 1777, when she was released by Governor 
Clinton. She then returned to Watervliet. Persecution had awakened sym- 
pathy for her, and her followers greatly increased. A wild revival movement 
in the vicinity, in 1780, poured a flood of converts into her lap, and she deluded 
the silly creatures with the assertion that she was the " woman clothed with 
the sun," mentioned in the Apocalypse. She told them that she daily judged 
the dead of all nations, who came to her, and that no favor could be had, except 
through a confession of sins to her. She became a Pontifix Ilaximus — a second 
Pope Joan — and under her directions, the faithful discarded all worldly things, 
and gave into her hands all their jewels, knee-buckles, money, and other valu- 
ables. She excited their fear and admiration by mutterings, groans, and strange 

1. For a similar reason, George Fox (the founder of the Society of Friends) and his followers werft 
called Quakers. See note on page 62. 



THOMAS GODFREY. 69 



gestures; and introduced dancing, whirling, hopping, and other eccentricities, 
into tlie ceremonials of pretended worship. Mother Ann declared to her deluded 
followers that she would not die, but be suddenly translated into heaven like 
Enoch and Elijah. Notwithstanding she did actually die at Watervliet, on the 
8th of September, 1784, her followers believe that it was not real death. In a 
poetic ''Memorial to Mother Ann," written by one of them, occurs the stanza: 

" Hiw m icli they are mistaken, who think that Mother 's dead, 
When thi-onf;;h liei- ministrations so many souls are saved. 
In union wiih the Father, she is the second Eve, 
Dispensing full salvation to all who do believe." 



THOMAS aODFREY. 

APL AIN" mechanic was one day replacing a pane of glass in a window on the 
north side of Arch Street, Philadelphia, opposite a pump, when a girl, after 
lilling her pail with water, placed it on the side walk. The mechanic observed 
the rays of the sun reflected from the window, into the pail of water. This cir- 
cumstance produced a train of reflections in a highly mathematical mind, and 
led to an important discovery. That mechanic was Thomas Godfrey, who was 
bora about a mile from (xermantown, in Pennsylvania, in the year 1704. 

Godfrey's early education was limited ; and at a proper age he was appren- 
ticed to a glazier, in Philadelphia. He entered into the business on his owu 
account in 1725, and was employed in glazing Christ Church and the State 
House, ^ both of which are yet standing in the old part of Philadelphia. From 
early boyhood Godfrey exhibited great taste for figures ; and, like Rittenhouse, 
he often exhibited his diagrams in his place of labor. A work on mathematics 
having fallen into his hands, he soon mastered the science, and then he learned 
the Lat n language, so as to read the works of the best writers upon his favorite 
subject. 

In the Summer of 1729, Godfrey was employed by James Logan to glaze 
some windows in his library, and there he first saw Newton's Principia. He 
borrowed the work; and early in 1730, ho communicated his invention of the 
Qiiadranl (an astronomical and nautical instrument, of great value) to that gen- 
tleman. His reflections on the Arch Street incident, with the perusal of New- 
ton's work, had resulted in this invention. Mr. Logan took great interest in 
the matter, and conveyed information of the invention to the Royal Society of 
London, through his friend, Sir Hans Sloane. That institution rewarded Mr. 
Godfrey for his ingenuity, by presenting to him a quantity of household fur- 
niture, valued at o'le thousand dollars, but divided the honor of first discoverer 
equally between him and John Hadley, then vice-president of the institution. 

That ttie s>b hoaor was jastly due to Godfrey, there can be no doubt, for the 
f.ict appears to be well authenticated, that the first instrument made of brass, 
fro.n Godfrey's wooden model, was taken by the inventor's brother, captain of 
a vessel in tlie West India trade, to the island of Jamaica, and there exhibited 
to some English naval officers. Among these was a nephew of John Hadley. 
He purchased the instrument of Captain Godfrey for a large sum of money, and 
took it to his uncle, in London, who was a mathematical instrument maker. 
That gentleman made another instrument like it, except a few alterations, and 
presented it to the Royal Society, with an explanatory paper, as his invention. 

1. Independence Hall, wherein Congress was a'remhled when the Declaration of Independence was 
adopted o i the 4th of July, 1776, is in this State House. The exterior of the building has been somewhat 
changed since then. 



70 PONTIAC. 



Tliat presentation occurred on the 13th of -May, 1731, just about the time that 
Sir Hans Sloane called the attention of the Society to Godfrey's invention. The 
American inventor, like Columbus, lost the honor of having his name identified 
with the discovery, and the instrument is known as Hadley's Quadrant. Mr. 
Godfrey died in Philadelphia, in December, 1749, at the age of forty-five years. 



P O N T I A C . 

SAVAGE and treacherous as he is. the native Indian, in his forest home. h:,s 
many generous and noble qualities, such as we have been taught to admii o 
when displayed by Roman warrior or Greek law-giver. Pontiac, the great 
chief of the Ottawa tribe a hundred years ago, possessed these in an eminent 
degree ; and had his natural endowments been nurtured under the warm sun 
of civilization, no doubt his name would have been high among the great ones 
of earth. But he was forest born, and forest bred, and history speaks of him 
O'-ily as a great chief, filled with deadly hatred of the white man, and renowned 
for bloody deeds and bloodier intentions. 

Pontiac, when he first became known to the white man, was ruler of the 
whole north-west portion of our present domain. Where Cleveland now stands 
in its pride, Major Rogers first met the great chief, one bright morning in the 
Autumn of 1760. He informed Pontiac that the English had taken Canada 
from the French, and then made a treaty of friendship with him. Though Pon- 
tiac had been the fast friend of the French during the war just ended, he now 
appeared upon the field of history, for ihe first time, in the fall strength of 
mature manhood. He was doubtless sincere in his treaty with the English, but 
the non-fulfilment of their promises, and the infiuence of French emissaries, soon 
made him trample all compacts beneath his feet. He did more, far more than 
any North American Indian ever eftected before or since. He confederated all 
the Indian tribes of the North-west to- utterly exterminate the English, or drive 
them from all their posts on the great lakes, and in the country around the head 
waters of the Ohio. Like Philip of Mount Hope, Pontiac viewed the approach 
of vvhite settlements with jealousy and alarm. He saw, in the future, visions 
of the displacement, perhaps destruction, of his race, by the pale^faces; and he 
determined to strike a blow for life and country. So adroitly were his plans 
matured, that the commanders of the western forts had no suspicion of his con- 
spiracy until it was ripe, and the first blow had been struck. Early in the 
Summer of 1763, within a fortnight, all of the .posts in possession of the English, 
west of Oswego, fell into his hands, except Niagara. Fort Pitt, and Detroit. 
Early the following Spring, Colonel Bradstreet penetrated the country to Detroit, 
with a strong force. The Indians were speedily subdued, their power was 
broken, and the hostile tribes sent their chiefs to ask for pardon and peace. 
The haughty Pontiac refused to bow. He went to the country of the Illinois 
tribe, where he was basely murdered, in 1769, by a Peoria Indian, who was 
bribed by an English trader to do the deed, for a barrel of rum. The place of 
his murder was at Cahokia, on the east side of the Mississippi, a little below St. 
Louis. A great man fell, when Pontiac died. He was the greatest of all chiefs 
known to the white men. and deserved a better fate. It is said that during his 
operations in 1763, he appointed a commissary, and even issued bills of credit, 
which passed current among the French inhabitants of the North-west. "WHien 
he died, he wore a uniform presented to him by Montcalm, who esteemed him 
highly. Pontiac was an actor in the last scene in the drama of the French and 
Indian War. 



FISHER AMES. 



71 




FISHER AMES. 

" TTAPPILY he did not need the smart of guilt to make him virtuous, nor the 
11 regret of folly to make him wise," were the words uttered by one who 
knew Fisher Ames well, and appreciated his noble character. He was a son of 
Dr. Ames, a physician and a wit,' of Dedham, Massachusetts, where he was 
born on the 9th of April, 1756. He was a delicate child ; and so precocious was 
he in the acquirement of knowledge, that at six years of age he commenced the 
study of Latin. At the age of twelve he was admitted to Harvard College, 
where he was graduated in 1774. That was a year of great gloom in Massa- 
chusetts, and indeed throughout the whole country ; and as young Ames' mother 
was poor, and the times made a choice of business difficult, he taught a common 
school for awhile. He read and studied incessantly, and, finally, prepared for 
the profession of the law, under William Tudor, in Boston. He commenced its 



1. He kept a p'lblic-honpe atDeiham, and or^ one occasion, the colonial judKOshavin^, as hetlioug it, 
decifled a case agrainst him unlawfully, lie sketched Iheir honors upon a sign-board in tront ot his 
tave n, in iheir full-botlomei wigs, tippling, wilh their backs <o an open volume, labelled Provirce 
Law." The Boston aulhorities sent some officers to Dedliam, to remove the sign. The doctor was pre 
»arei for them ; and when they arrived, they found nothing hanging but a board on which was in- 
ecribed, " A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign, but no sign shall be given them. 



JOSEPH GALLOWAY. 



practice at Dedham, in 1781, and soon stood at the head of the bar in his native 
district. From early youth he had exhibited rare oratorical powei-a. These 
powers now had fine opportunities for expansion, and with pen and tongue 
Fisher Ames soon attracted the attention of all classes of his countrymen. Ho 
was a member of the convention for ratifying the Federal Constitution, in 1788, 
and there his eloquence gained hin:i the heartiest applause. He was elected a 
member of the Massachusetts Legislature the same year, and in 1789, he was 
the first representative of his district, in the Federal Congress. There he was 
the chief speaker in all important debates. It is said that on one occasion,^ in 
1796, his eloquence was so powerful, that a member, opposed to him, moved 
that the question on which he had spoken should be postponed until the next 
day, "that they should not act under the influence of an excitement of which 
their calm judgment might not approve." John Adams bluntly said, in allusion 
to that sp..'ech, "there was n't a dry eye in the house, except some of the jack- 
asses that occasioned the necessity of the oratory." 

Mr. Ames was the author of the " Address cf the House of Representatives," 
to President Washington, on his signifying his intention to withdraw from office. 
At about the same time, his own feeble health compehed him to decline a re- 
election, and he retired partially from public life. He was a member of the 
council of his State for some 3'ears; and in 1800, he pronounced a eulogy on 
Washington, before the State Legislature. He was chosen President of Harvard 
College, in 1805, but ho declined the honor. His pawers of life gradually failed 
for several years; and on the 4th of July, 1808, his pulse ceased to beat, at the 
age of fifty years. In the o] 1 church-yard at Dedham is a plain white monu- 
ment, on which is the simple inscription — FiSiiER Ames. Mr. Ames was a fluent 
and voluminous writer, and his collected productions are among the choicest 
things in our literature. 



JOSEPH GALLOWAY. 

A MONG the eminent loyalists of Pennsylvania, who adhered to the patriot 
J A. cause until the war had fairly begun, Joseph Galloway was, perhaps, the 
most distinguished. He was born in Maryland, in 1730, and early in life he 
went to Philadelpliia to practice law, in which profession he soon took a high 
rank. He obtained a beautiful wife and a considerable fortune by marrying the 
daughter of Liwreuce Growdon, who was Speaker of tlie Assembly of Pennsyl- 
vania, for manv years. Mr. Galloway was a member of that body in 1764, and 
his sympathies, as manifested by his words and actions, were always on the side 
of the people. So Vv'ell convinced were the people of his staunch republicanism, 
that he was elected a member of the first Continental Congress in 1774, and was 
a very active participant in the debates in that body. He submitted a plan of 
union between Great Britain and the colonies, by which the latter might be 
comp.iratively independent, with a president at their head, appointed by the 
king. His plan was not adopted; and when the Congress agreed upon a non- 
importation, non-consumption, and non-exportation scheme, called the American 
Association, Mr. Galloway signed it. Ho was never in favor of a political sepa- 
ration f.-om Great Britain, yet he was alwa,ys in favor of the most stringent meas- 
ures for compelling the government to redress the grievances of the colonists. 
In 1775, he began to show signs of wavering, by earnestly asking to be excused 

1. Speech on Jay's Treaty. 



TIMOTHY KUGGLES. 73 



from serving as a delegate in the Continental Congress; and in 1776, when the 
question of independence began to be agitated, he abandoned the Whigs, and 
became one of the most violent and proscriptive Loyalists. Afraid to remain 
in Philadelphia, he joined the royal army in New York, where he remained 
until early in the Summer of 1788, when he went to England, accompanied by 
his only daughter.' In 1779, ho was summoned before parliament to testify 
concerning the state of affairs in America. He was severe upon General Howe 
and other British officers, in relation to their stupid management. He kept up 
an extensive correspondence with the Loyalists, in America, during the remain- 
der of tlie war, and wrote several pamphlets on subjects connected with llie 
hostilities. Mr. Galloway's large estates in Pennsylvania were confiscated ; and 
wlien a commission was appointed, in London, for prosecuting the claims of the 
Loyalists, ho was made a member of the board for Delaware and Pennsylvania, 
A large part of his property was afterward restored to his daughter, and is still 
in possession of his descendants. Mr. Galloway never returned to America. He 
died in England, in September, 1803, at the age of seventy-three years. During 
the war, all the Whig writers took delight in making him a target for their wit 
and scorn. Trumbull, in his McFingall, gave him many hard hits ; and Philip 
Frenau, and other poets, scorched him severely. 



TIMOTHY RUaOLES. 

THERE were many able men who stood in opposition to the British govern- 
ment in the first revolutionary movements of the American colonies, but 
who timidly reced d when the quarrel became fierce, and the government ut- 
tered its menacing thunders. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, was of that 
class. He was born at Rochester, in that province, in 1711, and was graduated 
at Harvard in 1732. Ho became a lawyer; and at the age of twenty-five years, 
he was an influential member of the General Assembly. He rose rapidly in his 
profession, and was often called to measure forensic weapons with the Otises, 
father and son. Ho was fond of military life, and held the commission of colonel 
in the provincial forces under Sir William Johnson. At the battle at Lake 
George, in 1755, ho was second in command to Johnson ;2 and was active in tho 
campaigns of the two years following, under Amherst, when he held the com- 
mission of Brigadier-general. He also served with distinction, under that 
officer, in 1759-60, in his expedition against Quebec and Montreal. In 1762, 
he was appointed chief justice of the common pleas, and was Speaker of tho 
Assembly at the same time. In 17(33, he made Hardwick his residence, whero 
he practiced his profession. Tho storm of the Revolution soon began to lower; 
and when, in the Autumn of 17 05, a congress of delegates, from the different 
provinces, to consider the grievances of the people, was held at New York, 
General Ruggles was a delegate thereto, from Massachusetts, and was chosen 
president of the convention. Ho was unwilling to go as far as his colleagues, 
and refused his cooperation in the proceedings of the congress, for which he was 



1. It is supposed that Galloway's departure from Philadelphia was hastened by the discovery that his 
daughter was about to marry Judge GriSSn, a firm Whig, and afterward President of the Continental 
Congress. 

2. For his good conduct in Uiat campaign, he was rewnrded with the almost sinecure office of Si; 



Teyor-gene: al of the king's forests. It was a lucrative office, with very little labor. 



"/" 



71 JONATHAN CARVER. 

greatly censured. From that time he ranked among the royahsts, and in 1714, 
was made a councillor, and accepted the office. That act made him very ob- 
noxious to the patriots, and he was compelled to leave the country, and take 
refuge under royal military rule, in Boston. His large estates were confiscated, 
and he became a refugee, when the British were driven from Boston, by Wash- 
ington, in the Spring of 1776. He afterward returned to the vicinity of New 
York, and organized a corps of about three hundred loyalists, but seems not to 
have performed much active service. In 1779, he went to Nova Scotia, where 
he resided until his death, which occurred in 1798, when he was eighty-seven 
years of age. General Ruggles was a scholar, but rude in manners and speech. 
He has many descendants in Nova Scotia. 



JONATHAN CARVER. 

THE earliest Ameriean-born traveller, of note, was Jonathan Carver, who first 
saw the light of life in Connecticut, in 1732. He was educated ibv the 
medical profession, but chose the military art as a vocation, and led a company 
of Connecticut provincials in some of the expeditions against the French in 
northern New York, from 1756 to 1759. He served with reputation until the 
peace in 1763, and soon afterward he formed the bold resolution to explore the 
continent of America from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean. He also hoped 
thereby to be instrumental in finding the long-sought north-west passage to 
India. 

Mr. Carver left Michillimackinac in the Autumn of 1766. That was the most 
westerly of the British military posts. Bearing a few gifts for the Indians, he 
penetrated the present Minnesota Territory to the head waters of the St. Pierre, 
more than a thousand miles from the point of his departure. He was foiled in 
his grand design ; and after spending some time on the northern and eastern 
shores of Lake Superior, exploring its bays and tributaries, carefully observing 
the productions of nature and the habits of the Indians, he returned to the set- 
tlements, and laid his papers before tlie governor of Massachusetts, at Boston. 
He had been absent about two years, and had travelled over seven thousand 
miles. 

Having carefully arranged his journals and charts, Mr. Carver went to Eng- 
land for the purpose of publishing them. He petitioned the king for a re-im- 
bursement of funds which he had spent in the service of the government, in 
these explorations, but his claims were deferred. He received permission, how- 
ever, to publish his papers, and he sold them to a bookseller. Just as they were 
ready for the press, he was ordered to deliver all his charts and papers into the 
hands of the Commissioners of Plantations, and he was compelled to re-purchase 
them from the bookseller. Ton years elapsed before he was allowed to lay them 
before the public. In disappointment and poverty, he became a lottery clerk ; 
and finallv, in 1779, his necessities induced him to sell his name to a historical 
compilation, published in folio, and entitled The New Universal Traveller. Tliis 
act caused the loss of his clerkship, and many professed friends abandoned him. 
He died in the suburbs of London, in extreme want, in 1780, at the age of only 
forty-eight years. Such is sometimes the fate of genius. An edition of his 
travels was published in Boston in 1797. 



REBECCA MOTTE. 



75 




REBECCA MOTTE. 

THE fortitude, courage, and unfaltering patriotism of tlie women of the Revolu- 
tion, were remarkably and universally displayed. Everywhere — in every 
province, they were actors as well as sufferers; and many a scheme of British 
aggression was frustrated by the sisters, wives, and daughters of those who were 
in the camp or field. South Carolina presents many such bright examples, but 
none appear more brilliant than Rebecca Motte, whose unwavering courage and 
fidelity, as well as sacrifices, attest her ardent patriotism. She was the youngest 
daughter of Robert Brewton, who emigrated to America in 1733, and married, 
at Charleston, an accomplished young lady, a native of Ireland. He made 
Cliarleston his residence, and there Rebecca was born on the 28th of June, 1738, 
At tlie age of twenty, she married Jacob Motte, a descendant of one of the 
Huguenot families of South Carolina. He owned a fin 3 plantation near the 
banks of the Congaree, a,nd there Mrs. Motte, the mother of six children, and a 
widow, resided during the War for Independence. 

After the fall of Charleston, in 1780, the British commander sought to hold 
military possession of South Carolina, by establishing fortified camps in the in- 
terior. The fine mansion of Mrs. Motte was taken possession of fortified for 
the purpose, and named Fort Motte. The garrison was commanded by Major 
McPli3rson, in May, 1781, when Marion and Lee appeared and commenced a 
(Siege. Mrs. Motte had been driven from her mansion by the Briti.sh, and had 



76 SAMUEL ADAMS. 



taken up her abode in her farm-house, whither her mother' (who resided with 
her) had carried a beautiful bow and bundle of arrows, presented to her son by 
an East India captain. Having but one cannon, the Americans could make biit 
little impression on the British works. Lee's fertile mind conceived the idea of 
dislodging the enemy by burning the mansion, that act to be effected by hurhng 
ignited combustibles upon the dry roof, by means of arrows. He suggested the 
plan to Mrs. Motte. She heartily approved of it, notwithstanding it involved 
the destruction of her property ; and she presented Lee with the East India bow 
and arrows, for the service. Tlie hoped-for result was accomplished ; and after 
the British had surrendered, Mrs. x\ otte regaled the officers of both armies Avith 
a sumptuous dinner. One of her daughters married General Thomas Pincknev, 
one of the most valuable officers of the South. Mrs. Motte lived, greatly 
beloved by all, until tlie year 1815, when she died, at the age of seventy-seven 
years. " Iler children " (and children's children) " rise up and call her blessed." 



SAMUEL ADAMS. 

'^ OUCH is the obstinacy and inflexible disposition of the man, that ho can 
O never be conciliated by any office or gift whatever," was the unintentional 
eulogium of Samuel Adams, by the royal governor, Hutchinson, when asked 
why he did not purchase the patriot by offers of place and money. The eulogium 
was just, for a more inflexible patriot never bared his arm fur conflict, than that 
scion of the old Puritan stock of Boston. Ho was born in that city on the 2'7th 
of September, 1722, and in 1740, was graduated at Harvard College. His ideas 
of popular rights seem to have had an early growth, for in 1743, when he re- 
ceived the degree of Master of Arts, he proposed for discussion the question, "Is 
it lawful to resist the supreme magistrate, if the commonwealth cannot otherwise 
be preserved ?" He maintained the affirmative, with great vigor. His pen was 
early employed in political discussion, and the soundness of his judgment, and 
purity of his thoughts, made him ver}-- popular, even before public affairs called 
his patriotism into activity. His earliest public office was that of tax-gatherer, 
by which he became personally acquainted with all classes of people. In 1765, he 
was chosen a member of the Massachusetts Assembly. He was also clerk of that 
body, and for almost ten j^ears he swayed a powerful influence in the Colonial 
Assembly, as a loading and bold representative of the republican party among 
the people. Step by step, inch by in;^h, Samuel Adams fought the enemies of 
popular liberty during the dark hours whicli preceded the bursting of the storm 
of the Revolution ; and he was the most active of the patriots of Boston in ex- 
citing the people to acts like that of the destruction of the cargoes of tea, in 1773. 
When royal government was repudiated, in 1774, he was chosen a member of 
the provincial council; and when General Gage sent his secretarj' to dissolve 
the assembly, just previous to that popular congress, he found the door of the 
legislative chamber locked, and the key was in Samuel Adams' pocket. Adams 

1. Mrs. Brcwton was reraaikahic for her boldness in Ihe presence of danger, and for her keen wit. 
While in Charleston, when the British had possession of that city, hor society was courted by the eNie 
annng the conquerors, notwithstandirg she often made them feel ihe keenress of her sarcasm. On 
gains into the city, an officer inquired, "What news from the country?" "All nature smiles," she 
rjpliel. "fo- everything is Greene, down to Monk's Co;ne"." (ieneral Greene had just laken possession 
of (he State down to that point. Just before the siege of Fort Motte, a young Biitish subaltern insulted 
thj family, by giving the names of different American officers to pine saplings, and then cutting off their 
top-! with his sword. After their surrender, Mrs. Brewlon requested him to amuse her again, in that 
way, and expressed her regret that the loss of his sword would deny her the privilege. Colonel Mon- 
criof occupied Governor Rutledge's house, in Charleston. Passing it with a British officer, Mrs. Brew- 
ton took a piece of a crape flounce accidentally torn from her dress, and tied it to the front railing, ob 
serving that the house and fi lends of the governor ought to mourn for his absence. She was arrested, 
and sent to Philadelphia a few hours afterward. 



ROBERT ROGERS. 77 

was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, in 17*74, and there he was 
an exceedingly usefot public servant for several years. He v^^as an earnest ad- 
vocate of the rcSk:/lulion which declared the colonies "free and independent 
states;" and when some members faltered through fear of failure, the stern 
Puritan «.,xclaimed, " I should advise persisting in our struggle for liberty, though 
it were revealed from heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were to perisli, 
and only one of a thousand were to survive, and reiain his liberty ! One such 
free man must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happiness, than a thousand 
slaves; and let him propagate his like, and transmit to them what ho hath so 
nobly preserved." Such was the temper of the man who originated the idea of 
a Colonial Congress, in 1*765, and was the earliest advocate of a Ccint'-nental 
Congress, in 1774. He affixed his signature to the Declaration of Independence 
in 1776; and in 1781, ho retired from Congress, but not from public life. He 
was a leading member of the Massachusetts convention to form a state consti- 
tution; and in 1789, he was chosen lieutenant-governor of his native State. In 
1794, he was elected governor, as the successor of John Hancock, and was an- 
nually re-elected, until 1797, when the infirmities of old age compelled him to 
retire from public life. On the morning of the 2d of October, 1803, that noble 
patriot expired, in the city of his birth, at the age of eighty-two years. 



ROBERT ROGERS. 

THE French and Indian war developed much military genius among the 
American colonists, which was afterward brought into requisition by the 
demands of the revolutionary contest. It did not always take its place on tho 
side of republicanism, as in tho case of Ruggles and many others. Major Robert 
Rogers, the bold commander of a corps of Rangers, and a companion-in-arms 
with Putnam and Stark, was another example of defection to the cause of free- 
dom in America. He was a native of Dunbarton, in New Hampshire, and hav> 
ing entered the military service in 1755, became an eminent commander of a 
corps which performed signal services as scouts, and executors of small but 
important enterprises, when not engaged with the main army. After the peace 
in 1763, he returned to his native place, and received the half-pay of a regular 
British officer of his rank, until the War for Independence broke out. In 1766, 
he was made governor of Michilliinackinac, in the far North-west, whore he had 
confronted the confederates of Poutiac, a few years before. He was accused of 
a design to plunder his own fort, and was sent in irons to Montreal. After his 
release he went to England, was presented to the king, and met with royal 
favor ; but extravagant habits led him into debt, and he was cast into prison. 
He finally returned to America, and when the revolutionary contest began, the 
color of his politics was doubtful. His movements, toward the close of 1775, 
gave reason to suspect him of being a spy; and in June, 1776, Washington had 
him arrested, at South Amboy, and brought to New York, where he professed 
great friendship for his native country. He was released on parole, by Congress, 
and directed to return to New Hampshire, which he did. He soon afterward 
boldly espoused the royal cause, raised a corps, which he called the Queen's 
Bangers, and was with Howe, in Westchester, previous to tho battle at White 
Plains. He soon afterward left his corps in command of Lieutenant-colonel 
Simcoe, and went to England. By an act of his native State, he was banished, 
and never returned to America. When, and where he died, is not on History's 
record. He was a brave soldier; but, according to his own confession, his hal^ 
pay from the crown made him an adherent of royalty. 



78 



BENJAMIN RUSH. 




- ^,*3^ 



/j^^t^Zi^r^^t^^^ 



BENJAMIN RUSH. 

MANY faithful practitioners of the medical art have justly borne the honorable 
title given to St. Luke, of "beloved physician;" but none have better do- 
served it than Dr. Rush of Philadelphia. He was born at Byberry, about twelvo 
miles north-east from that city, on tlie 24tli of December, 1745. When six 
yeirs of age, death deprived him of his father, and his mother placed him under 
the care of his maternal uncle. Dr. Finley, who was at the head of an academy 
in Maryland. Desirous of giving him a classical education, his mother sold her 
little estate in the country, engaged in trade in Philadelphia, with success, and 
in 1759, was able to place him in college at Princeton, where he was graduated 
at the close of 1760. The medical profession was his choice; and he studied 
the science under the eminent Doctors Redman and Shippen, until 1766, when 
he went to Edinburgh to complete his scientific studies there. In the Summer 
of 1768, he went to Paris; and in the Autumn he returned home, bearing the 
diploma of Doctor of Medicine, which he had received at Edinburgh. He im- 
mediately commenced practice in Philadelphia, and never was success more 
brilliant. His skill, polished manners, intelligence, and kind attentions to the 
poor, made him popular with all classes, and he soon found himself possessed of 
a very lucrative practice. 



SILAS DEANE. 79 



In 1769, Dr. Rush was appointed professor of chemistry in the Medical Col- 
lege of Philadelphia, yet his professional duties did not occupy his whole time. 
He espoused the patriot cause immediately after his return home, and his pen 
became a powerful instrument in arousing the people to energetic action in favor 
of popular freedom. He declined a proffered seat in the Continental Congress 
in 1775; but when, the following year, some of the Pennsylvania delegates were 
opposed to independence, and withdrew, he consented to take the seat of one 
of them, and his name was affixed to the great Declaration, in August. The 
following year. Congress appointed him physician-general of the middle depart- 
ment; and from that time he declined all public employment, until 1787, when 
he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention which ratified the Federal 
Constitution. In 1789, he was made professor of the theory and practice of 
medicine in the Medical College of Philadelphia; and in 1796, he was made 
professor of the practice of medicine in the Medical College of Pennsylvania. 
He held his three professorships until his death. His lectures were of the highest 
order, and students from all parts of the United States flocked to Philadelphia, 
to attend them. Dr. Rush was also connected with the United States mint, for 
many years. 

When, in 1793, the yellow fever appeared in Philadelphia, of most malignant 
type, and many alarmed physicians fled, Dr. Rush remained at the post of duty, 
with a few faithful students, and was instrumental in saving scores of lives. 
Some of his pupils died, and he was violently attacked by the disease, yet he 
did not remit his labors, when he could leave his bed. For his fidelity in that 
trying hour he was greatly beloved. Nor did his usefulness end with his life. 
The impress of his mind and energy is upon several institutions; and the general 
appreciation of his character was manifested by his being made honorary mem- 
ber of many literary and scientific societies, at home and abroad.^ In all stations 
ho exhibited the character of a consistent Christian, and his principles remained 
unscathed amid all the infidelity which French writers had infused into. the 
minds of men in high places, toward the close of the last century. That great 
and good man died peacefully at Philadelpliia, en the 19th of April, 1813, when 
in the sixty-eighth year of his age. That event was the disappearance of a bright 
star from the social firmament. 



SILAS DEANE. 

THE first diplomatic agent employed by the Continental Congress, in Europe, 
was Silas Deane, a native of Groton, Connecticut. The date of his birth 
is unknown. He was graduated at Yale College in 1758, and being an active 
patriot, was chosen a delegate to the first Continental Congress, in 1774. Early 
in 1776, he was sent by that body, as a political and commercial agent, to the 
court of France, to sound the cabinet of Louis the Sixteenth on the subject of 
granting military supplies to the revolted colonies. The French King, wifling 
to injure England, listened to Deane's overtures with eager ears, and he obtained 
noble verbal promises. In the Autumn of 1776, when the colonies had been 
declared independent. Dr. Franklin and Arthur Lee were appointed commission- 
ers, with Mr. Deane, to negotiate treaties with foreign powers. They met at 

1. He foniulei (he Philadelphia Dispensary, ii 1786 ; and lio was also one of Ihe principal founde s of 
Dickinson College, at Oirlisle, Pennsylvania. He was president of (he American Society for the aboli- 
tion of slavery ; of ihe Philadelnhia Medicnl Society ; v-c^-prc^ident of the Philadelphia Bible Society; 
and one of the vice-presidcats of tho American Philosophical Society. 



80 TENCH COXE. 



Paris, in December of that year, but it was soon discovered by Deane's col- 
leagues, that his appointment was an injudicious one. He exceeded his instruc- 
tions concerning the employment of engineers for the continental army, and he 
was profuse in his promises of oflBces of high rank, to induce French gentlemen 
to go to America. 

Influenced by Deane's promises, many French ofBcere came over, and Congress 
became very much embarrassed by their applications for commissions. Dcane 
was recalled in the Autumn of 1777, and John Adams was appointed in his 
place. Deane arrived at Philadelphia the following Spring, in company with 
Mr. Gerard, the first minister sent hither by France, after the treaty of amity 
between the two governments, in Februarj', 1778. He was called upon to ex- 
plain his official course abroad, before the assembled Congress, but he did not 
entirely acquit himself of the suspicion that he had misapplied the public funds, 
while in office, and he evaded thorough scrutiny by pleading that his voucliers 
were left among his papers, in Europe. In order to mislead public opinion, l.e 
published an address, in which he arraigned members of Congress and those in. 
charge of the operations of tlie office for foreign affairs, at Philadelphia. Thomas 
Paine was at the head of t'lat office, and in his reply to Deane, he revealed some 
secrets concerning transactions with the French government, and was requested 
to resign. In 1784, Deane published another address to the people of the 
United States, complaining of ill treatment by the government. Very little at- 
tention was paid to his complaints, and he soon afterward went to England. 
He died in extreme poverty at Deal, in England, in 1789, at the age of about 
fifty years. 



TENCH COXE. 

AS we survey the labors of useful men, we are often compelled to regret the 
paucity of their personal history, left on record. We admire their deeds, 
and wish to know more of the men, but Time has drawn the veil of oblivion, 
even over the traditions of their private life. Such is the case in relation to 
Tench Coxe, one of the most indefatigable of the public-spirited men of our 
country, and to whom the Cotton interest, especially, is vastly indebted, for he 
labored long, assiduously, and efficiently, in its behalf. He was a grandson of 
Dr. Daniel Coxe, physician to the Queen of Charles the Second, and of Queen 
Anne, of England, who became one of the principal proprietor of the soil of 
West Jereey. His son, William Coxe, married the daughter of Tench Francis, 
attorney-general of the province of Pennsylvania, and these were the parents of 
Tench Coxe, who was born in Philadelphia, on the 22d of May, 1755. His chief 
distinction is that of a lucid and powerful advocate of the cultivation of cotton 
in the United States, and of other industrial pursuits. He says that f.s early 
as 1785, when he was but thirty years of age, he "felt pleasing convictions that 
the United States, in its extensive regions south of Anne Arundel and Talbot 
counties, Maryland, would certainly become a great cotton producing countr}^" 
He made these suggestions public at that time ; and after the convention at 
Annapolis, in 1786, called to consider the business and general interests of the 
new Republic, the matter received considerable attention. While the conven- 
tion that framed the Federal Constitution was in session in Philadelphia, in 1787, 
Mr. Coxe delivered an admirable address on his favorite theme, before a large 
number of gentlemen who had assembled in that city, for the purpose of estab- 
lishing a society for the encouragment of manufactures and the useful arts. 
That address thoroughly awakened the public mind. Before that time, not a 



TENCH COXE. 



81 




bale of cotton had ever been exported from the United States to any country, 
and no planter had adopted its cultivation as a "crop." What a change has 
taken place within less than seventy years! That then neglected article has 
now become a staple of several of the States of our Union, and the source of 
great national wealth. 

From 1787, until the death of Mr. Coxe, on the 17th of July, 1824, there was 
never any important movement in favor of the introduction and promotion of 
manufactures, in which his name did not appear prominent. In 1794, he 
published a large octavo volume, which contained what he had previously 
written on the subject of the growth of cotton, and cognate topics. At that 
time he was commissioner of the revenue at Philadelphia, and his whole time 
was devoted to the investigation of the subjects of national industry and national 
prosperity. In 1806, he published an essay on naval power and the encourage- 
ment of manufactures. The following year he pubhshed a memoir on the culture 
and manufacture of cotton, and this was followed by other similar productions, 
at various times, until his death, when at the age of sixty-eight years. Tench 
Coxe is regarded by those who appreciate his usefulness, as a national bene- 
factor. 



82 JOHN LEDYAED. 



JOHN LEDYARD. 

THE world has never produced a more indefatigable traveller and explorer, 
than John Ledyard, the eldest son of a sea captain, who resided at flroton, 
Connecticut. There John was born in 1751. His father died while he was yet 
a lad; and after his mother had married again, he was taken into the family of 
his grandfather, at Hartford, and treated as a son. His guardian died, vrhen 
John was about eighteen years of age, and he entered Dartmouth College as a 
divinity student. He became dissatisfied, and resolved to leave the institution. 
He had already been a wanderer among the Five Nations in New York for 
three months, and had tasted the pleasures of exciting travel. Having no money 
to pay travelling expenses to Hartford, he constructed a canoe, laid in '■ sea 
stores" contributed by kind friends, and all alone he made a perilous voyage 
down the winding Connecticut and its numerous rapids, to Hartford, a distance 
of one hundred and forty miles. This first adventure revealed the spirit within. 
He soon made his way to New London, and shipped as a common sailor, for 
Gibraltar. There he joined the army, but being released, he made his way back 
by way of the Barbary coast and the West Indies, in 1771. He then sailed 
from New York to England, where he entered the navy, and as corporal of 
marines, accompanied Captain Cook in his third and last great voyage. Ever 
brave and resolute, young Ledyard became the favorite of his commander, and 
he was frequently intrusted with little enterprises, which required skill and 
courage. He was with Cook when he was killed by the people of the Sandwich 
Islands, in 1778. After visiting the shores of Kamschatka, the expedition re- 
turned to England, and Ledj^ard came to America. He arrived after an absence 
of eight years, and took lodgings under his mother's roof at Southold, Long 
Island, without being recognized by her, for some hours. The war of the Revo- 
lution was then in progress, and Ledj^ard could not consistently remain among 
the enemies of his country, so he crossed over to Connecticut, joined his friends 
at Hartford, and there wrote an account of the voyage with Captain Cook. 

Ledyard now planned a voyage to the north-west coast of America, but re- 
ceived very little encouragement. He sailed for Cadiz, thence to L'Orient, and 
going to Paris, he had an interview there with Mr. Jefferson and La Fa3'ette. 
They approved of his projected voyage, for commercial purposes, to the north- 
west coast, and Paul Jones, then in Paris, entered heartily into the scheme. 
The plan failed, however, and Ledyard conceived the bold project of making a 
journey by land, through the Russian dominions, to Behring's Straits, by way of 
Kamschatka, and thus reach the north-west coast. He went to London, and 
Sir Joseph Banks and other scientific gentlemen contributed funds to aid him 
in his enterprise. He proceeded to Hamburg, thence to Copenhagen and Stock- 
holm ; and without a companion he traversed the country north of the Gulf of 
Bothnia, under the Arctic circle, and made his way to St. Petersburg. There 
he procured a passport from the Empress Catharine, and started for Siberia, over 
the Ural Mountains. After dreadful hardships, which few men could have en- 
dured, he reached Yakutsk, on the great Lena river, six thousand miles east- 
ward of St. Petersburg. He pushed on further to the Kamschatkan Sea, but 
finding much ice, he returned to Yakutsk, to await the opening of Spring. 
There, for reasons unknown to him, he was suspected of being a spy, and was 
seized by two Russian soldiers, in the name of the Empress. In the depth of 
Winter he was conveyed through the north of Tartary, by the way of Moscow, 
to the confines of Poland, and there his conductors wished him a pleasant jour- 
ney, and told him he woald be hanged if he entered the Russian dominiona 



CORNELIUS HARNETT. 83 



agaiiJ. Ragged and penniless, he made his way to Konigsberg, where a cor- 
respondent of Sir Joseph Banks gave him five guineas, with which he proceeded 
to England. There ho found a project on foot, for exploring the interior of 
Africa. Ledyard at once engaged, with enthiisiasm, in the enterprise. When 
one of the managers of tlie association, which had been formed for the purpose, 
asked Ledyard how soon he would be ready to start, he promptly replied, "To- 
morrow morning." After writing to his mother, he sailed from London, in June, 
1788, reached Cairo on the 19th of August, and then prepared to penetrate the 
interior. He joined a caravan for Sennaar, and was on the point of departure, 
with high hopes, when he was attacked by a bilious fever, which terminated 
his life on the 17th of January, 1789, at tlie age of thirty-seven years. Ledyard 
was a fluent and even e'egant writer. He was a man of keen observation, and 
his notes of travel, truthful in the extreme, exhibited tales of romantic interest, 
such as the brain of the most expert writer of fiction could never have conceived. 
His narrative of Captain Cook's voyage, published at Hartford, in 1783, is full 
of exciting interest. From his papers in the possession of his relative, Dr. Isaac 
Ledj^ard, Mr. Sparks, the historian, compiled an interesting life of the traveller, 
and published it in 1828. 



CORNELIUS HARNETT. 

ONE of the chief master spirits of the Revolution, in North Carolina, was Cor- 
nelius Harnett, of Wilmington. He was born in England in 1723, and 
came to America in early life. He was a man of wealth and distinction before 
the disputes, which led to the Revolution, commenced ; and he was among the 
earliest of the Southern patriots to denounce the Stamp Act and kindred meas- 
ures. In 1770 and 1771, he represented the borough of Wilmington in the 
colonial legislature, and was chairman of the most important committees of that 
body. In conjimction with Robert FTowe (afterward a general in the Revolu- 
tion) and Judge Maurice Moore, Mr. Harnett was appointed by the Assembly 
to draw up a remonstrance against the appointment of commissioners, by the royal 
governor, to run the southern boundary of the province, and he was then known 
as one of the firmest Whigs' in all the South. Josiah Quincy, the young and 
ardent patriot of Boston, visited Mr. Harnett in 1773, and after describing the 
pleasures of a visit spent with him and Robert Howe, he spoke of Harnett's 
unflinching integrity, and called him "the Samuel Adams of North Carolina." 
Toward the close of that year, Mr. Harnett was made chairman of the committee 
of correspondence, of Wilmington District, and, throughout the Cape Fear region, 
he was the master spirit of the storm of the revolution, as it gathered and burst 
over the country. When a provincial congress was called, in 1775, he was then 
the representative of his old constituents ; and in that Congress at Halifax, on the 
Roanoke, in 1776, from which issued the first official voice in favor of the inde- 
pendence of the colonies, Cornelius Harnett was a bold leader, and A\'ith his own 
hand drew up those noble instructions to the North Carolina delegates in the 
Continental Congress. WJien, in the Spring of 1776, Sir Henry Clinton appeared 
at Cape Fear, with a British fleet, Harnett and Howe were honored with an 
exemption from the terms of a general pardon, because, like John Hancock and 
Samuel Adams, they were considered arch-rebels. When, on the 26th of July, 

1. The terms Whig anrl Tony were copied fiom the poliiical vocabulnry of (Ireat Brifair, where they 
originated in the tirtie of Charles the Second. Thj term W/'iig denoted llie opposers of goveinmert, and 
that of Tory its adherents. In that relation to public affairs, they were first used in America, about the 
year 1770. The Republicans were called miign, the I^oyalists, Tories:. 



84 PEYTON RANDOLPH. 



1176, the Declaration of Independence arrived at Halifax, Harnett read it to 
the people, who, when he had finished it, took him upon their shoulders, and 
bore him in triumph through the town. In the Autumn, he drafted a State 
Constitution and Bill of Rights. When, under that constitution, Richard Cas- 
well was made governor of the new State, Harnett was one of his council. He 
was afterward a member of the Continental Congress, and his name is attached 
to the Articles of Confederation.^ When, in 1780 and 1781, the British took 
possession of the country around the Cape Fear, Harnett \\'as made a prisoner, 
and died while a captive. Upon a slab of brown stone, at the head of his grave 
in St James' church-yard, Wilmington, is the simple inscription — "Cornelius 
Harnett. Died 1781, aged fifty-eight years." 



PEYTON RANDOLPH. 

THE chroniclers of ancient dynasties are often foiled in their researches con- 
cerning early kings, and when they have lost the clue of regular descent, 
or find it leading back into the domains of mere myth, they conveniently con- 
clude that the first monarch of the line was begotten by a god. We have no 
such difficulty in this great republican empire of the AVest, for dynasties change 
with men, and eyes are yet undimmed which saw the first chief magistrate of 
this free nation. He was a Virginian — a native of the State called " the mother 
of presidents " — and his name was Peyton Randolph. He was born in the year 
1723, and was a descendant, of one of the oldest of the aristocratic families of 
Virginia who boast of having the royal blood of Powhatan- in their veins. 

According to a then prevailing custom, young Randolph was sent to England 
to be educated. He was graduated at Oxford, with honor, and received the de- 
gree of Master of Arts. He commenced the study of law on his return home; 
and so rapid was his success in his profession, that he was made attorney-general 
of the colony of Virginia, in 1756, Avhen thirty-three years of age. At that 
time, the French and Indian War was progressing, and the Indians, incited by 
the French, were desolating the Virginia frontier. Narratives of these outrages 
aroused the indignation of Mr. Randolph, and collecting a hundred men, he led 
them to the borders of the Indian country, and taught the savages some terrible 
retributory lessons. Toward the close of that contest, Mr. Randolph was elected 
to a seat in the Virginia Legislature, and he often presided over that body. 
There his influence was verv great, and as the storm of the Revolution came on 
apace, his voice was ever heard on the side of freedom. 

Mr. Randolph was elected a delegate to the first Continental Congress, which 
asiemblod in Carpenter's llall, Philadelphia, on the 5tl of September, 1774. 
Cliarles Thomson recorded on that day: '"The Congress proceeded to the choice 
of a President, when the Hon. Peyton Randolph, Esq., was unanimously elected." 
This vote made him really the first President of the United States, for then and 
there our Union had its birth. He was again chosen President when another 
Congress met at the same place, in May following, but feeble health compelled 
him to resign the office, fourteen days afterward, when John Hancock was 
chosen to fill his place. Mr. Randolph resumed his seat in Congress early the 
following Autumn; and on the 22d of October, 1775, he died at Philadelphia, 
from the eff'ects of apoplexy, in the fifty-third year of his age. 

1. These formed a constitution of government for the United States, until 1789, when the present 
Feiie'al Constitution went into operation, as a substitute. 

2. See sketch of Pocahontas. 



MERCY WARREN, 



85 




MERCY WARREN. 

JAMES OTIS was a noble actor in the earlier scenes of the Revolution, and 
his beloved sister, Mercy, equally patriotic in her more limited sphere, was 
a fuithful recorder of those acts, and of the subsequent events which led to the 
founding of our republic. She was the third child of Colonel Otis, of Barnstable, 
Massachusetts, and was born there on the 25th of September, 1728. As eldest 
daughter, much of her childhood and youth was spent in domestic employments, 
and her leisure was devoted to reading and study. Her opportunities for edu- 
cation were limited, but she found a never-failing source of instruction in the 
conversation and the library of Rev. Jonathan Russell, the parish minister. 
There slie read Raleigh's History of the Worlds and that gave her a taste for such 
practical and important knowledge. Her gifted brother, James, was also her 
aid and adviser in literary pursuits ; and so great was the attachment between 
them, that when the insanity which clouded his intellect, at the last, was mani- 
fested by ravings, her voice, alone, could calm his spirit. At the age of twenty- 
six years, Miss Otis became the wife of James Warren, a merchant of Plymouth, 
and a man of congenial mind and temper. Her life passed happily in alternate 
employments in domestic duties, in needle-work, and in the use of the pen \n 
prose and poetry, until the gathering storm of the Revolution disturbed the re- 
pose of all families. Her brother was then uttering his noble thoughts in the 
senate ; and she too, fired with patriotic ardor, labored with her pen, in the great 



WILLIAM HENRY DEAYTON. 



cause. She was in correspondence with mOst of the controlHng spirits of that 
day, and her pohtical ophiions were consulted by many who gave them vital 
action in the council and the field. Her roof was always a free shelter to patriots 
of every condition, and there D'Estaing and other French officers spent many 
pleasant and instructive hours. In 1775, was published her satirical drama, in 
two acts, entitled The Group, in which she introduced many of the leading Tory 
characters of the day. It had a powerful effect at the time. She early con- 
ceived the idea of preparing a faithful chronicle of the war, and for that purpose 
she kept a journal, from the commencement to the end. After the war, her 
poetical pieces were collected into a volume, dedicated to General Washington. 
It contained her tragedies. The Sack of Rome, and The Ladies of Castile. The 
first was so much esteemed, that John Adams, then United States minister in 
London, expressed a desire to have it performed upon the stage in that city, 
"before crowded houses, for the honor of America." Her History of the Revolu- 
tion was published at Boston, in three volumes, in 1805, though completed several 
years before. She was then seventy-eight years cf age, and yet possessed much 
of the personal grace and vivacity of mind, mentioned bv Eochefoucault, who 
visited her seven years before. The prefece, written at that time, shows remark- 
able mental vigor. Her earnest pra^^er always was, to be spared the loss of 
her mental faculties, while she lived, and the boon was vouchsafed. When, on 
the 19th of October, 1814, her spirit took its flight, her reason was unclouded, 
though its earthly tenement was almost eighty-eight years of age. 



WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON. 

ONE of the most brilliant and promising young men of South Carolina, when 
the revolutionary contest began, was Judge Drayton, a scion of one of the 
oldest and best distinguished cavalier families of the South. He was a nephew 
of Governor Bull, and was born in September, 1742. Eor about eleven years 
he was a student at Windsor and Oxford, in England; and on his return to 
South Carolina, he prepared for the profession of the law. He went to England 
again in 1771, and there pubhshed the discussions between the friends and op- 
ponents of the government, in Charleston. He was introduced at court, and 
being fully impressed with the belief that Great Britain would speedily redress 
the grievances of the colonists, he accepted the appointment of a seat in the 
royal governor s council. Being soon undeceived, he opposed government meas- 
ures with great energy, and was finally dismissed for his contumacy. 

In September, 1774, Mr. Drayton published a pamphlet, addressed to the 
Continental Congress, in which the grievances of the Americans were clearly 
stated, and an able Bill of Rights presented. He yet held the position of one 
of his majesty's justices, to which he had been appointed in 1771, and was the 
only native-born citizen who had ever been honored Avith that office. He re- 
tained his position until the Spring of 1775, when the royal judges made their 
last circuit. During the following Summer he labored manfully in the cause of 
freedom, as President of the Provincial Congress of South Carolina; and in the 
Autumn, when the British sloops of war, Tamar and Cherokee, menaced Charles- 
ton with bombardment, because of the rebellious movements of its citizens, he 
was appointed, by the committee of safety, to the command of the armed ship, 
Prosper, employed to oppose them. Commodore Drayton returned their fire 
promj^tly several times, and thus actual hostilities at the South commenced. 



JOHN ADAMS. 8i 



In March, 1776, Judge Drayton was chosen chief justice of the then revolted 
colony of South CaroUna, by the unanimous voice of his Whig- countrymen; and 
his admirable charge to the grand jury, delivered a month afterward, was hailed 
thro'ij^-hout the land as one of the noblest expressions of patriotic public senti- 
ment yet uttered. It placed the author in the same honorable position as John 
Hancock and Samuel Adams, of Massachusetts, who were denounced as arch- 
tra'to:'S. From that time, until the close of his career, he was regarded as one 
of th3 chief leaders of the rebellion in the South, and yet he found time to 
chi-onicle, in minute detail, the preliminary and current events of the great 
str:iggle. He became a member of the Continental Congress, and died suddenly 
while in the discharge of his legislative duties, in Philadelphia, on the 3d of 
September, 1779, at the age of thirty-seven years. "J. Memoir of the American 
Bevolution, from its commencement to the year 1776," prepared by Judge Drayton, 
was revised and published by his son, Governor John Drayton, in 1821. 



JOHN ADAMS. 

IN" our Republic, where offices and titles are not hereditary, it is seldom that 
father and son both occupy the same post of honor; and it is still more 
rare, in any country, for both to be equally distinguished for talent and useful- 
ness, as in the case of the elder and younger Adams. They both occupied im- 
portant diplomatic stations, and both became chief magistrate of the United 
States. John Adams, the elder, was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 
30th of October, 1735, and was a lineal descendant of one who fled to America, 
to avoid the persecutions of Laud, during the reign of Charles the First. His 
maternal ancestor was John Alden, of the May Flower, and thus he was an in- 
heritor of a love of freedom. He received a primary education at a common 
school in Braintree, and there he was prepared for a scholarehip in Harvard 
College, where he was graduated at the age of twenty yeare. The law was his 
chosen profession ; and under Mr. Putnam, of Worcester, he made rapid progress, 
not only in that study, but in the acquirement of general information, for he 
there had the free use of an extensive library, belonging to Mr. Gridley, the 
attorney-general of Alass ichusetts. The value of such a fountain of knowledge, 
to him, was soon apparent; and when, in 1758, he commenced the practice of 
law at Braintree, he gave ample assurance of speedy eminence, both as a pro- 
fessional and a public man. Ho was admitted as a barrister, in 1761, and at 
the same time took part with Otis and others in denunciations of Writs of As- 
sistance. When the tempest raised in America by the Stamp Act was at its 
height, Mr. Adams wrote and published his famous Essay on the Canon and 
Feudal Law, which at once placed him high the public esteem. 

Mr. Adams married in 1766, and soon afterward made Boston' his place of 
residence. There he took front rank with the political agitators, and was one 
of the most prudent, yet decided of the popular leaders.' In 1770, he was elected 
to a seat in the Massachusetts Assembly; and in 1774, he was chosen one of 
five to represent that province in the First Continental Congress. He was again 
elected to the same office in 1775, and nominated George Washington for the 
important station of commander-in-chief of the armies of the United States. On 

1. Tlis popnlavi^y was put to the S3verest t3st in 1770, when Captain Preston, and some of his soldiers 
who hui fire'^lnpon a mob and killed ihree people [see roteon pafre£9], were tiicd fnriniiulcr. Adams, 
in the face of gieatly-exciied public opinion, consented, as a lawyer, to defen<l Preston, and he was 
acquitted. The faith of the people, in Adams, was so unwavering, that this seeming treason to their 
cause did not lesson his character iu their esteem. 



88 



JOHN ADAMS. 




the Gth of May, IITG, he offered a resolution, in Congress, equivalent to a dec 
laration of independence, and when that subject assumed a more definite form, 
soon afterward, he was one of the ablest advocates of the measure. His signa- 
ture was affixed to the great instrument which declared the colonies "free and 
independent States." Mr. Adams labored on assiduously in Congress,' until 
appointed, by that body, to fill the place of Silas Deane at the French court. 
Franklin had done all the necessary diplomatic work, and Mr. Adams returned 
in 177'J. He then assisted in framing a state constitution for Massachusetts, and 
while thus employed, was appointed a minister plenipotentiary to negotiate a 
peace, and form a commercial treaty, with Great Britain. He was very active 
while abroad, and at one time was intrusted with no less than six missions.^ 
In 1781, he was associated with Franklin, Jay, and Laurens, in various nego- 
tiations, and was the first of the American commissioners who signed the defin- 
itive treaty of peace, with Great Britain, in 1783. He was the first United 
States minister to the British court, and did not return home until 1788. He 
was elected the first vice-president of the United States, under the Federal 

1. In fhe course of the eighteen months preceding: his depurtnre for Europe, Mr. Adams had hecn on 
ninety different committees, and was chairman of ticeniy-fite of them. 

2. To treat for peace with Gieat Biitain ; to make a commercial treaty wi(h Oreat Britain ; 1o repro- 
tiate the same with the States General of Holland ; the same with the Prince of Orarjrc ; to plerlpc the 
faith of the United States to the Armed Neutrality ; and to negotiate a loan often millions of dollars. 



WILLIAM RICHARDSON DAVIE. 89 

Constitution, in 1789, and in 1796, he was elevated to the presidential chair. At 
the close of his term, in 1801, he retired from public life, but lived to see his 
son occupy the chair of chief magistrate, twenty-four years afterward. In 1824, 
he was chosen president of the Massachusetts convention for revising the state 
constitution, which he assisted in forming forty -five years before, but he declined 
the honor. His powers of life were then failing; and on the 4th of July, 1826, 
he expired, with the words "Independence forever !" upon his lips, in the ninety- 
second year of his age.' 



WILLIAM RICHARDSON DAVIE. 

WHEN the first thunder-peal of the Revolution rolled over the South, hun- 
dreds of her gallant sons seized their arms, and rushed to the field ; and 
many, who were living in obscurity, then burst the chrysalis of comparative in- 
significance and became honored leaders of the popular mind. Among these 
was William Richardson Davie. He was born at Egremont, near White Haven, 
l]ngland, on the 20th of June, 1756. His father brought him to America when 
lie was a small child, and on his return, left him with his maternal uncle. Rev. 
William Richardson, of South Carolina. At a proper age, he was placed under 
the care of Dr. Withorspoon, of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, wliere 
he was graduated in 1776, a few weeks before Washington and his broken army 
passed through there, in their flight toward the Delaware. 

Young Davie returned to North Carolina, full of patriotic fire, and resolved on 
becoming a soldier. He could not then obtain a commission, so he went to 
Salisbury and studied law, supposing the war would not continue many months. 
But as the clouds thickened, 3^oung Davie became restive, and he induced a 
popular friend to raise a troop of dragoons, of which the fledgling hero was made 
lieutenant. They marched toward Charleston, and the command devolving on 
Lieutenant Davie, he procured the attachment of his corps to the legion of Count 
Pulaski. In that capacity he fought at Stono Ferry, in June, 1779, where he 
was so badly wounded that he was confined for five months in a hospital. 

In 1780, Davie was placed at the head of a legionary corps, with a commission 
of major from the governor of North Carolina. He spent the last shilling of a 
bequest made by his lately-deceased uncle and guardian, in equipping this corps, 
and then went to the field to oppose the progress of the British troops toward 
the interior of the Carolinas. Ho nobly aided Sumter in his operations in the 
vicinity of the Catawba, early in August, and was hastening to join the army of 
Cates, when it was defeated and dispersed near Camden. He was afterward with 
Rutherford at Ramsour's Mills, and nobly confronted the enemy at Charlotte, 
after a brilliant display of courage and skill at Wahab's Plantation. For his 
sorvices during that campaign, he was rewarded with the commission of colonel 
commandant of the cavalry of North Carolina. 

When Greene took command of the southern army, he appointed Colonel Davie 
his commissary-general. In all the important operations which followed, Davie 
was exceedingly efficient; and at the trying hour at Ninety-Six, in the Summer 
of 1781, Greene sent Colonel Davie to present the condition of his army to the 
legislature of North Carolina. He performed the service well ; and prospects 

1. Mr. Adams and Mr. JefTerson bolh expired on the same day, and at almost the same hour. They 
■ware both on the committee that framed the Declaration of Independence; both voted for that instrii- 
ment just fifty years before ; both signed it : both had been fo:eiprn ministers ; and bolh had been Pres- 
ident of the Republic they had helped to estf.blish. The coincidence of their deaths was Iherefoie 
aiuite remarkable. 



90 ROBERT MORRIS. 



of peace appearing in the Autumn, he left the array, married a daughter of 
Greneral Allen Jones, in 1783, and in the town of Halifax, on the Roanoke, com- 
menced the practice of law. In that pursuit he soon became eminent, and -was 
chosen a delegate to the convention which framed the Federal Constitution. In 
1797, he was commissioned a major-general of militia, and the next j^ear, he was 
appointed a brigadier in the army of the United States. In 1798, he was elected 
governor of the State of North Carolina, and was soon afterward appointed, by 
President Adams, an associate envoy extraordinary to France, with Ellsworth 
and Murray. After his return, he went to reside at Tivoli, a beautiful estate on 
the Catawba river, in South Carolina. His wife died in 1803, and he remained 
in retirement until his own death, which occurred at Tivoli, in December, 1820, 
when he was in the sixty-fourth year of his age. General Davie was one of the 
founders of the North Carolina University, at Chapel Hill. He was chiefly in- 
strumental in procuring the erection of the buildings for that institution ; and, 
as grand master of the masonic fraternity, he laid the corner-stone. 



ROBERT MORRIS. 

IT is an often demonstrated truth, that "money is the sinew of war." It was 
eminently so during the revolutionary struggle, when its strength and use 
fulness in the cause of freedom, were controlled by Robert Morris, a wealthy 
and influential merchant of Philadelphia. He was born in Lancashire, England, 
in January, 1733. His father was a Liverpool merchant extensively engaged 
in the American trade, who came to America in 1744, and settled on the eastern 
shore of Chesapeake Bay. His son, Robert, with his grandmother, followed in 
174G, and was placed in a school in Philadelphia, where an inefficient teacher 
wasted his time and patience.' In 1749, young Morris was placed in the count- 
ing-room of Charles Willing, of Philadelphia; and on the death of his employer, 
in 1751, he entered into a partnership with that gentleman's son, which con- 
tinued thirty-nine years. That firm soon became the most wealthy and exten- 
sive among the importers of Philadelphia, and consequently they were the heaviest 
losers by the non-importation agreements, 2 which gave such a deadly blow at 
the infant commerce of the colonies, after the passage of the Stamp Act. Yet 
they patriotically joined the league, and made the sacrifice for the good of the 
cause of right. 

In November, 1775, Mr. Morris was elected to a seat in the Continental Con- 
gress,^ where his exceeding great usefulness was soon discovered. Its appreci- 
ation was manifested by placing him upon committees, having in charge the 
"ways and means " for carrying on the war. In the Spring of 1776, he was 
chosen, by Congress, a special commissioner to negotiate bills of exchange, and 
to take other measures to procure money for government. At that time, no 
man's credit, in America, for wealth and honor, stood higher than that of Robert 
Morris. He was again elected to Congress after the Declaration of Independence 

1. On oie occasion Robert's father ceisnrci him for his; tarrtiness in learning. His reply and excuse 
we e, " Why, sir, T have lea-ned all lliat (lie master could teach me." 

2. One of the measures artoptel bv rho colonists to compel Great Britain to do them justice, was that 
of \m3rican merchants everywhe'-c as: eei-ijr '^ot <o import any more goods from the mother country, 
until all obnoxious acts should be rer>ei1ed. The=e leagne«. recommended by the Continental Congress 
in 1774, and generally subscribed to, had a powerful e^ect on Pailiament, for in the Lower House (Com- 
mon'-^ '1, J mercantile in+e-esf had a potential represert;i*'on. 

3. W'i3n the news of the ba'tlc of Lexington reached Philadelphia, Mr. Morris and some friends, raem- 
be-s of the S^ Oeo-ge's Society, were celebrating their anniversary. There the subject was discussed, 
and Morris and a few others, by solemn vow, dedicated themselves to the cause of the Revolution. 



EGBERT MOERIS. 



91 





^(T^/l^^^^^ 



had been adopted, and being favorable to that measure, he signed the document, 
with most of the others, on tlie second day of August following. Toward the 
close of that year, when the half-naked, half-famished American army were about 
to cease the struggle, in despair, he evinced his faith in the success of the con- 
flict, and his own warm patriotism, by loaning for the government, on his own 
responsibility, ten thousand dollars." It gave food and clothing to the gallant 
little band under Washington, who achieved the noble victory at Trenton, and 
a new and powerful impetus was thereby given to the Revolution. 

Mr. Morris was continually active in the great cause during the whole of the 
war. He fitted out many privateers. Some were lost, others were successful 
in bringing him rich prizes ; and at the return of peace he estimated that his 
losses and gains were about equal. In May, 1781 about the gloomiest period 
of the struggle, Mr. Morris submitted to Congress a plan for a National Bank. 
It was approved, and the Bank of North America, with Robert Morris as its 
soul, was established, and became a very efficient fiscal agent. He was assisted 
by Gouverneur Morris; and through the active agency, in financial matters, of 
these gentlemen, much of the success which resulted in the capture of Cornwallis, 

1. "T want money," sairt Morris to a Quaker friend, "for the use of the army." "What security 
canst thou give?" asked the lender. " My uote and my honor," responded Morris. " Robert, thou 
shalt nave it," was the prompt reply. 



92 FRANCIS DANA. 



at Yorktown, must be attributed.' During that year Mr. Morris accepted the 
office of Financial Agent (Secretary of the Treasur}^) of the United States. After 
the war, he was twice a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, and he was 
one of the framers of the Federal Constitution. He was a senator in the first 
Congress convened under that instrument ; and Washington appointed him his 
first Secretary of the Treasury. He declined the office, and named Alexander 
Hamilton as more capable, than himself^ to perform the duties. At the close of 
his senatorial term, Mr. Morris retired from public life, not so rich in money, by 
half, as when he entered the arena. Soon the remainder of his large fortune 
was lost by speculations in wild land, in the western part of the State of New 
York, afterward purchased by an association known as The Holland Land Com- 
pany. On the 8th of May, 1806, Robert Morris, the great Financier of the 
Revolution, died in comparative poverty, at the age of a little more than seventy- 
three years. 



FRANCIS DANA. 

MASSACHUSETTS is pre-eminent among the States in the production of dis- 
tinguished men. Prominent among those of whom she may be justly 
proud, is the name of Francis Dana, who was born at Charlestown, near Boston, 
in August, 1742. He was educated at Harvard University, and chose the law 
as his profession. In the midst of the confusion and distress incident to the 
closing of the port of Boston, by parliamentary decree, in 1774,2 ;xjj., Dana went 
to England, and passed a year with his brother, a clergyman, at Wroxeter. He 
returned to America at the close of 1775, took an active part, as a j atriot, in 
the exciting political proceedings of the time, and in the Autumn of 1776, was 
elected a delegate to the Continental Congress. In that important station he 
remained until November, 1779, when he accompanied John Adams to Paris, as 
Secretary of Legation. 

Toward the close of 1780, Congress appointed Mr. Dana minister plenipoten' 
tiary at the court of Russia. The Empress Catherine would not openly leceive 
him, for fear of offending England, but he was allow^ed to remain in St. Pettrs- 
burg until the close of the war, when he returned home, and was in mediately 
chosen a delegate to the Congress of 1784. Mr. Dana was an efficient aelvocate 
of the Federal Constitution, in thp Massachusetts convention, and exerted great 
influence in the political affairs of his State. President Adams appreciated his 
worth, and offered him the office of envoy extraordinary to France, with Messrs. 
Marshall and Pinckney, in 1797. He declined the honor, and Elbridge Gerry, 
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, accepted it. Mr. Dana 
had tlien held the important office of chief justice of Massachusetts, for five years, 
to which he had been appointed by President Washington. He retained his 
seat on the bench until 1806, when he retired to private life, but not to a life of 
inaction. He was a thorough Federalist; and during the exciting political 
period, from the election of Jefferson in 1800, until his death, his pen was often 
busy. Judge Dana died at his residence in Cambridge, near Boston, on the 
25th of x\pril, 1811, at the age of sixty-eight years. 

1. The Bank of North America did rot go into operation until December, 1781. Yet Morris, on his 
own personal responsibility, was acting as efficiently as the banlc could (hen have done, in providing 
funds for the American army under Washington, in making its successful expedition into Virginia. 

2. In consequence of the destruction of two cargoes of tea in Boston Harbor, in December, 1773, and 
other rebellious movements, the British parliament ordered the port of that city to be closed, and all its 
public otfices to be removed. This blow at the business of that thriving town, was a retaliatory meas- 
ure, and produced great irritation throughout the colonies. 



JOHN FITCH. 93 



JOHN FITCH. 

THE records of human invontions are full of instances of originators being 
deprived of the honors and emoluments due to them. John Fitch, an early- 
applicant of steam power to the propulsion of boats, is a remarkable instance of 
th.it khid. He was born between Hartford and Windsor,' in Connecticut, on the 
21st of January, 1743. At the age of eight years, he was taken from school, 
ani put to labor on a farm; after which ho had but one month in each year to 
devote to study under instruction. But most of the leisure moments of child- 
hoo 1 wore employed with his books; and at the age of eleven years, he planted 
ani raised so.na potatoes, for tho express purpose of purchasing a complete 
Geography. His health was naturally feeble, and he appears to have been 
overworked on the farm. He ran away from home, and was afterward appren- 
tice I to a clo3k-maker. He learned the business imperfectly, and abandoned 
it at his majority, for that of a brass-founder. He married a young lady, in 1767, 
but incompatibility of temper and views caused them to separate at the end of 
two years. They had two children, but a reconciliation never took place, and 
the cloud always deeply shadowed his path of life. 

Mr. Fitch was a silversmith in Trenton, New Jersey, when the British army 
entered it, and destroyed his shop and contents, in the Winter of 1776, because 
he was engaged in repairing American arms. He joined the army, and was 
with Washington at Valley Forge. There he heard some officers speak of the 
fertility of Kentucky. He procured the appointment of deputy surveyor, and m 
the Spring of 1780, set out on f )ot, for that un traversed wilderness beyond the 
Alleghanies. He returned to Philadelphia the following year, the owner of six- 
teen hundred acres of fine land in the Ohio Valle}^, and filled with dreams of future 
opulence. Again he started for the great West, and while descending the Ohio, 
with some others, in tho Spring of 1782, he was made a prisoner by the Indians, 
wh3re Marietta now stands. He was redeemed from captivity, at Detroit, by a 
British officer, went to Canada, and returning to Pennsylvania, he constructed a 
map of the Western Country. He now conceived the idea of "gaining a force 
by steam;" and in August, 1785, he presented the subject to the Continental 
Congress, and asked for aid to try experiments in applying the power to the 
propulsion of vessels, by means of wheels or paddles. At about this time, Mr. 
Rumsey, of Virginia, had conceived a similar idea, and Mr. Fitch, disappointed 
ani exasperated by what ho deemed the stupidity of Congress, went from State 
to State, in search of aid, but without success. He engaged in a bitter contro- 
versy with Rumsey, in relation to priority of invention ; and in the meanwhile, 
new claimants appeared. Yet all seemed to have distinct plans, with identical 
aim— the moving of a boat by means of steam-power. Fitch and Rumsey pro- 
cured protective statutes from different State legislatures. The former organ- 
ized a stock company, to carry out his designs, in 1786, but little was effected 
by it. The State of Pennsylvania refused to lend him one hundred and fifcy 
pounds, to procure an engine from England. With another mechanic, ho suc- 
ceeded in constructing an engine and boat; and on the 1st of May, 1789, the 
first steamboat was seen moving upon the waters of the Delaware. The boat 
went at the rate of eight miles an hour, and yet there was not confidence enough 
in the project, to sustain the persevering inventor. To him success was as 
"clear as any problem in Euclid;" and in a letter to Franklin, he expressed his 
full belief that '■''steamboats would answer for sea voyages, as well as inlanf naviga- 

1. The house in which he was born stood upon the dividing line of those towns, and it is sai J that his 
birth occurred in the Windsor portion of the dwel.ijg. 



94 JOHN ALEXANDER LILLINGTON. 

tiony Despairing of gaining fands to perfect his invention, in America, Fitch 
went to France and England, in 1792; but, disappointed and almost penniless, 
he returned home, and retired to Kentucky. He found a good deal of his land 
occupied; and in 1797, he conuneuced ejectment suits. Soon after this his mind 
and body began to giv^e way under the pressure of long-continued excitements, 
and, though temperate through life, he determined to shorten his days by the 
excessive use of spirituous liquors. He foretold the time of his death by a 
mathematical calculation, and on the 2d of July, 1798, he died at Bardstown, 
Kentucky, and was buried there. Had his countrymen appreciated his inven- 
tions, and sustained his efforts, the glory awarded*^ to Fulton would doubtless 
have been due to John Fitch, full twenty years earlier than the success of the 
former established his own fame. 



JOHN ALEXANDER LILLINOTON. 

THE Cape Fear region of North Carolina abounded with true Republicans, 
when the party lines between Whigs and Tories were distinctly drawn, 
just before the war of the Revolution was lighted up. John A. Lillington was 
one of the truest stamp. He was the son of a British mihtary officer, whoAvas a 
member of the royal council of Barbadoes, in 1698. His son John, captivated 
by the glowing accounts given of North Carolina, emigrated thither, and settled 
within the present limits of New Hanover county ; and in 1734, built a fine 
mansion there, which he called Lillington Hall. It stands on the north branch 
of the Cape Fear river, about thirty miles from Wilmington. The proprietor 
inherited the military tastes of his father ; and when the notes of preparation 
for the Revolution were heard all over the land, his skill was brought into re- 
quisition He was also a member of the Wilmington committee of safety in 
1775 ; and when the Scotch Highlanders and others in the vicinity of Cross Creek 
(Fayettevillc), took up arms for the king, under Donald McDonald, in the Winter 
of 1776, Colonel Lillington commanded one of the provincial corps which marched 
against, and defeated them, at Moore's Creek, under the general command of 
Colonel Caswell. It was the initial battle of the Revolution in the South, and 
the victory was hailed with delight. Colonel Lillington was made a brigadier ; 
and from that time, until the approach of Gates, in 1780, he was active in the 
council and field. Both he and his son joined the army of Gates, and partici- 
pated in the disgrace of defeat at Camden. 

General Lillington remained in service until the close of the war, when he 
withdrew from public life, and sought repose in the bosom of his fomily at Lil- 
lington Hall. There appears to be no record of the birth or death of General 
Lillington. The slab over his grave, near his mansion, has an appropriate in- 
scription, but it bears no date, except that of his battle at Moore's Creek. It 
tells us, however, that "To intellectual powers of a high order, he united incor- 
ruptible integrity, devoted and self-sacrificing patriotism." Tradition avers, that 
he possessed a frame of Herculean proportions and strength, and that, in his 
generous kindness to all around him, must we find the reason of the salvation 
of Lillington Hall from the flames, when all others in the neighborhood were 
desolated. The Tories loved him for his goodness of heart ; the Whigs revered 
him for his stern patriotism. 



JOHN" PAUL JONES. 



95 




JOHN PAUL JONES. 



SOMEWHERE, in the great city of Paris, rest the remains of one of the bravest 
naval commanders known in history, but, like the sepulchre of General 
Greene, its identity is lost to this generation, and the reproach of that oblivion 
rests upon the government of the United States. John Paul Jones is the naval 
hero of the elder war for American independence ; and, like many of the patriots 
of that struggle, whom we delight to honor, he was born beyond the Atlantic. 
His birth occurred on the 6th of July, 1747, at Arbigland, on the Frith of Sol- 
way, Scotland. At the age of twelve years he was apprenticed to a ship-master 
in the Virginia trade. In 1766, he became mate of a Jamaica " slaver " (as 
vessels engaged in tlie importation of negroes, from Africa, were called), and 
two years afterward, while on his way to Scotland, in another vessel, he became 
master by the death of the two chief officers. In that position he was retained, 
though only twenty-one years of age. On the death of his mother, in 1773, he 
settled in Virginia.' When the Revolution broke out, he offered his services to 



1. He went there to take charge of some property belonging to a deceased brother. His original 
name was John Paul, but, for reasons not known, he added the name of Jones, after settling in Vir- 
ginia. 



96 RICHARD CASWELL. 

Congress, and received the commission of* a lieutenant in the navy, near the 
close of 1775. He soon afterward became commander of a vessel, with which 
he took sixteen prizes. In 1777, he was ordered to Paris, to arrange some naval 
operations with the American commissioners there; and in the Spring of 1778, 
he was spreading universal alarm along the coasts of Scotland, by his bold ex- 
ploits. At Whitehaven, he captured two forts with thirty cannon; and at 
anothsr time, almost succeeded in making the Earl of Selkirk, at Kirkcudbright, 
a prisoner. After a very successful cruise in the British waters, he returned to 
Brest, with two hundrei prisoners of war and much booty. At the close of the 
Suramar of 1779, he made another cruise, with a little squadron, his (lag-ship 
baing the Bonhonime Richard; and on the evening of the 23d of September, he 
had an engagement witli the Serapis and Courdess of Scarborough^ two strong 
English vessels that were convoying the Baltic merchant fleet. He had already 
captured thirteen vessels during the cruise, and boldly attacked these. It was 
one of the most desperate sea-fights that ever occurred. At one time the Richard 
and Sirapis were side by side, lashed together, and thus poured broadsides into 
each other, while with pike, cutlass, and pistol, the combatants fought hand to 
hand upon both vessels. After a conflict of two hours, the British vessel sur- 
i-endered; but Jones' flag-ship was so shattered, that, sixteen hours after the 
victory, it went beneath the deep waters of Bridlington Bay. This victory gave 
Jones great eclat, both in America and Europe. King Louis of France presented 
him with an elegant gold-mounted sword, with appropriate emblems and motto 
upon its blade ; and Congress then voted special thanks to the victor, ;ind had 
a gold meial struck in his honor, and presented to him, eight years afterward. 
Captain Jones returned to Philadelphia, in 1781; and when peace was estab- 
lished, he went to Europe as agent for the recovery of prize money. Ho re- 
turn 3d to America in 1787, and the following year he was solicited to join the 
Russian navy, with the commission of rear-admiral. lie served against the 
Turks, in the Black Sea, for awh^.c, but disliking the position, he retired to 
Paris, on a pension from the Empress Catharine, in 1789. There he resided 
most of the time, until his death, which occurred on the 18th of July, 1792, a 
few days before the arrival of a commission for him, from President Washington, 
to treat with Algiers. Though the minute circumstances of his death have been 
related, and the French Nacional Assembly noticed it by an eulogistic resolution 
— though it is said that his body was placed in a leaden coffin to be conveyed 
to the United States, if asked for, yet "the place of his sepulchre is not known 
unto this day." 



RICHARD OASWE1.I.. 

^PHE first victory of republican troops in North Ca'-olina, was won by those 
i under the command of a lawyer in the prime of life; and the first incum- 
bent of the chair of chief magistrate of that State, after it became a sovereign 
commonwealth by the act of the people, was that same lawyer, Richard Cas- 
well. He was a native of Maryland, where he was born on the Bd of August, 
1729. In 1746, he went to North Carolina, where, through influential letters 
of introduction, he found employment in one of the public offices. He became 
deputy-surveyor of the colony; and in 1753, was made clerk of the county court 
of Orange. He studied law with William Heritage (his second flither-in-law), 
obtained a license, and practiced with great success. He was chosen a member 
of the Colonial Assembly from Johnston county, in 1754, and continued to rep- 



JOHN" LOVELL. 97 



resent that district uutil 1771. During the last two years of his legislative 
duties in the Colonial Assembly, he was Speaker, and at the same time he hold 
the office of colonel of the militi;i of his county. In that, capacity he com-uandod 
the riglit wing of Governor Tryon's forces at the battle of the Allamauee, 'ms re- 
gard for law and order causing him to condemn the rebellious movements of 
the Regulators.' He was one of the delegates of North Carolina, in the Con- 
tinental Congress, in 1774, and was re-elected the (bllovting 3-ear; but being 
chosen treasurer of the southern district of his State, he resigned his seat in tlm 
Autumn, and returned home. 

In February, 1776, Colonel Caswell was the commander of the provincial 
forces who defeated tlie Scotch Loyalists in a battle u^ion Moore's Creek, in New 
Hanover county, North Carolina; and in April following, the Piovincial Con- 
gress gave him the commission of a brigadier, for the district of Newbern. Ho 
was chosen president of the Provincial Council, which framed a constitution fo^- 
the State, in the Autumn of 1776, and was elected the first governor under that 
instrument. During the stormy period of the three succeeding years, he held 
that office, performed his duty with rare faithfulness and ability, and refused 
compensation for his services. He led the troops of North Carolina, under Gates, 
in 1780, and was a participant in the disastrous defeat of the Americans at Cam- 
den. From 1782 to 1784, he was Speaker of the State Senate, and controller- 
general. Then he was again elected governor of the State. He filled that office 
until 1786, when he became ineligible, according to the provisions of the con- 
stitution. The following year, he was chosen a delegate to the convention which 
formed the Federal Constitution in the city of Philadelphia; and when the General 
Assembly of his State met, ho was chosen Speaker of the Senate. But his 
course on earth was nearly finished. Domestic bereavements had clouded his 
life with melancholy; ara while presiding in the Senate, on the 5th of Novem- 
ber, 1787, he was prostrated by paralysis. He lingered in almost insensibility, 
untd the tenth, when he expired, in tlie sixtieth year of his age. 



JOHN LOVELL. 

" THE Master" of many of the leading men of the War for Independence, in 
i New England, was John Lovell, a descendant of one of the first settlers 
in the Massachusetts colony. He was born in 1708, and was graduated at 
Harvard College, at the age of twenty years. He succeeded Jeremiah Gridley 
as assistant in the South Grramraar School of Boston, and in 1738, was placed at 
its head, where he exercised pedagogue authority for almost forty ^^ears. He 
wrote several political and theological pamphlets; and in 1743, he delivered a 
funeral oration, on the death of Peter Faneuil, the founder of Faneuil Hall, wdiich 
was published. Unlike a great proportion of his earlier pupils, Master Lovell 
was a Loyalist, and left Boston, with other refugees, when the British were driven 
from that city in March, 1776. He died in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1778, at 
the age of seventy years. 

1. Tha people of the interior of North Carolina, W3re chiefly of Scotch-Trish descent, and tlio:oiigti/y 
imb led with i idepculence of spirit. They warmly sympalhized with their bre!h-en of the se;i-board in 
opposing the Stamp Ac: ; and in 1771, an association of the principal inhabitants of Orange and adjacent 
counties, was forme I to resist the growinp rapacity of oftice holders, and repulale the political aflairs 
of their section. They called themselves negiil/Uorx. Tryon, then governor of the colony, led an aimed 
force against them, and in May, 1771, they had a bloody skirmish on ihe Allamance Creek. The Rfgu- 
laforn were overpowered, and six of the prisoners then captured, were hung at KUlsborough. There 
really, the first blood of the Ravolution was shed. * 



98 



ISAAC SHELBY 




ISAAC SHEI.BY. 

IF being a hero in two wars, with a long interval of useful service in civil life, 
should command the reverence of posterity, surely Isaac Shelby, of Ken- 
tucky, may worthily make claim to such reverential regard. He was born a few 
miles from Hagerstown, Maryland, on the 11th of December, 1750, and inherited 
from his Welsh ancestors that courage and perseverance for which he was so 
distinguished. He became a professional surveyor; and, at the age of twentj^- 
one years, he settled in Western Yirginia. He was with his father, Evan Shelby, 
in the battle at Point Pleasant, in 1774, and was afterward employed by Hen- 
derson and others, as a surveyor, in Kentucky. In July, 1776, he was appointed 
to the command of a company of minute-men, by the Virginia committee of 
safety; and the following year. Governor Patrick Henry appointed him commis- 
sary of supphes. In 1778, he was attached to the Continental commissary de- 
partment; and in the Spring of 1779, he was elected to a seat in the Virginia 
Legislature, from Washington county. Governor Jefferson gave him the com- 
mission of major, in the Autumn of that year, about which time he was engaged 
in defining the boundary line between Virginia and North Carohna, which 



JOHN ASHE. 99 



placed his residence in the latter State. A new county of Sullivan was formed, 
and Governor Caswell appointed him colonel of that district. He took very httlo 
part in military affairs, until the Summer of 1780, when Charleston fell into the 
hands of the British, and the subjugation of the whole South seemed inevitable. 
Colonel Shelby was then locating lands for himself, in Kentucky. His country 
needed his services, and they were freely given. He hastened home, raised a 
corps of three hundred mounted riflemen, crossed the mountains, and joined 
Colonel McDowell, on the Broad River. He was very active in that vicinity; 
and with Colonels Campbell, Sevier, and other brave officers and soldiers, he 
fought the decisive and successful battle, with Major Ferguson, on King's Moun- 
tain, in October, 1780. He suggested to General Greene that expedition which 
resulted so brilliantly for Morgan, and his country, at the Cowpens. In the cam^ 
paign of 1781, Shelby was under the command of Marion, for awhile; and the 
following year, he was elected to a seat in the North Carolina Legislature. Ho 
afterward made Kentucky his residence, and was one of the framers of its con- 
stitution, in 1792. He was elected the first governor- of the new State, and after 
an interval of comparative repose, he was again the incumbent of that import- 
ant office, in 1812. Another war with Great Britain was then impending. The 
fire of 1776 still warmed his bosom, and he called his countrymen to arms, when 
the proclamation of war went forth. Henry Clay presented him with a sword, 
voted by the legislature of North Carolina for his gallantry at King's Mountain, 
thirty-two years before, and with that weapon he marched at the head of four 
thousand Kentucky volunteers, toward the Canada frontier, in 1813, though the 
snows of threescore and three Summers were upon his head. He fought gal- 
lantly upon the Thames, in Canada ; and for his valor there, Congress honored 
him with a gold medal. President Monroe appointed him Secretary of War, in 
1817, but he declined the honor, for he coveted the repose which old age de- 
mands. His last public act was the holding of a treaty with the Chickasaw 
Indians, in 1818, with General Jackson for his colleague. His sands of life wer& 
now nearly exhausted. In February, 1820, he was prostrated by paralysis, yet 
he lived,- somewhat disabled, until the 18th of July, 1826, when apoplexy ter- 
minated his life. He was then almost seventy-six years of age. 



JOHN ASHE. 



THE resistance to official oppression in some of the interior counties of North 
Carolina, in 1771, known as the Regulator movement, was not viewed, by 
many good men, as a legitimate part of the general opposition to government 
measures, then rampant throughout the colonies ; and some who were the most 
earnest in denouncing the Stamp Act,^ zealously assisted Governor Try on, in his 
measures for suppressing these insurgents. Of these, John Ashe was conspic- 
uous. He was born in England, in 1721, and at the age of six years, he accom- 
panied his father to America, and grew to manhood near the banks of the Capo 
Fear river, in North Carolina. He was a representative in the Colonial Assem- 
bly for several years, and from 1762 to 1705, he was Speaker of that body. He 

1. In orrler to raise a revenue from the Amei lean colonies, to replenish the exhausted treasury of 
England after the French and Indian War, the Parliament decreed that every "piece of paper, parch- 
ment, or vellum," on which any legal instrument was written, should bear tlie government stami), to 
make it valid, for which eeitain prices were to be paid, according to the character of the instrument. 
Thj Americans justly regarded it as a scheme to tax (hem, indirectly, without their consent, and they 
resisted. The country was greatly excited, and the colonies were on the eve of rebellion, when the ob- 
noxious act was repealed. It became a law in 1765, and was repealed in 1766. 



100 WILLIAM JOHNSON. 



'varmly opposed tlio Stamp Act. and, with Hugh Waddell and others, he exer- 
cised his authority as colonel of the militia of his county, and led an armed force 
■JO Wilmington, to compel the stamp distributer' to resign. He commanded a 
part of the troops in Governor Tryon's expedition against the Regulators^ in 1771. 
On one occasion, during that expedition, while he was out reconnoitring, he was 
caught by some of the insurgents, tied to a tree, and severely whipped, He 
afterward became convinced of the justice of the seemingly rebellious movement, 
and was one of the most zealous of the revolutionary patriots of the South. In 
the Colonial Assembly, he advocated republicanism ; and as a member of the 
Provincial Congress, and of the committee of safety at Wilmington, he was ex- 
ceedingly active. He first suggested a Provincial Congress ; and at the head 
of five hundred men, he destroyed Fort Johnson, in 17 75. For this ho was 
denounced as an arch-rebel, but the republicans were more numerous than ad- 
herents of the crown, and he was unharmed. With eloquent words and ener- 
getic acts, he aroused the whole country around Wilmington, early in 1776; and 
he also raised and equipped a regiment. He was made a brigadier, and was 
active in his section until he joined Lincoln on the Savannah, in the Autumn of 
1778, with regiments from Halifax, Wilmington, Newborn, and Edenton. With 
these ho pursued the British down the right bank of the Savannah, from Augusta, 
early in 1779, but in a battle at Brier Creek, was defeated, with great loss. He 
then returned home ; and wdien the British took possession of Wilmington, in 
1781, General Ashe was made a prisoner, and his family suffered much. During 
his captivity he was attacked by the small-pox. While sick, he was released 
on parole, but died while accompanying his family to a place of quiet, in October, 
1781, at the age of sixty years. 



WILLIAM JOHNSON. 

ONE of the "baronial halls" yet in existence in the United States, is that of 
Sir William Johnson, at Johnstown, a few miles north of the Mohawk 
river. Its first proprietor, William Johnson, was a native of Ireland, where he 
was born about the year 1714, He was a nephew of Sir Peter Warren, a dis- 
tinguished naval commander in the British service. Sir Peter married Miss 
Watts, of New York, and purchased an extensive tract of land upon the Mo- 
hawk. When about twenty years of age, young Johnson came to America to 
look after his uncle's possessions in the wilderness. He learned the Indian 
language, and soon acquired a great influence, especially over the Mohawk tribes, 
within whose domains he resided. He built a large stone mansion on the Mo- 
hawk, near the present village of Amsterdam, called it Fcrt Jolmson, and re- 
sided there twenty years before he built Johnson Hall, above alluded to. He 
was shrewd, cunning, and licantious. Many of the half-breed warriors of the 
Mohawks, wdio took sides against the Republicans in the War for Independence, 
were his children, for he had numerous Indian concubines, among whom was a 
sister of the famous Mohawk chief, Joseph Brant. He also had a white wife, 
the pretty daughter of a German emigrant, by whom he had a son and two 
daughters.2 

1. Men were appointed in all the colonies to sell the stamps, or stamped paper. The office was so 
obnoxious to the people, that none were allowed to exercise it. 

2. In those days, emigrants were often sold to service, by their own consent, to pay their passage- 
money to America. The girl alluded to had been purchased by a man named Phillips, i i the Mohawk 
Valley. She attracted the attention of Johnson ; the sequel was told to a neighbor by Phillips himself: 
" Johnson, that tammed Irishman, cams todder day and offered me five pounds for her, threatening to 



DAVID BRAINERD. 101 



In 1755, Johnson was intrusted with the command of the provincial troops of 
New York, in an expedition against the French and Indians on Lake Champlain. 
He had a severe battle with them at the head of Lake Geoi'ge, in which he was 
early wounded, and the command devolved on General Lyman. The provincials 
were victorious, and Johnson received the honors of knighthood, and five 
thousand pounds sterling, because of the victory. He was also appointed super- 
intendent of Indian aflairs, with a handsome salary, and continued to hold his 
military commission. In 1759, he was again in the field ; and his superior officer 
(Prideaux) being killed in an attack upon Fort Niagara, he became commander- 
in-chief, and was successful. Such was now his infiuence over the Indians, that 
when Lord Amherst was at Oswego, in 1760, preparing to proceed against Mon- 
treal, Sir William furnished him with a thousand Iroquois warriors. He died 
at Johnson Hall, on the 11th of July, 1774, at the age of about sixty years. He 
had commenced a powerful opposhion to the republican movements in the 
Mohawk Valley, and the mantle of his influence fell upon his son, Sir John 
Johnson, who succeeded to his title, office, and estates 



DAVID BRAINEKD. 

TO leave the endearments of home and the pleasures of civilized life, ana spend 
1 the strength of manhood among pagans, with the sole aim of doing good to 
the needy, is true heroism — an exhibition of chivalry, worthy of the honors of 
knighthood. Prominent on the list of such self-sacrificing champions, is the 
name of David Brainerd, eminent as a missionary among the Indians of our land. 
He was born at East Haddam, Connecticut, on the 20th of April, 1718. In 
1739, he entered Yale College, as a student; and in 1743, he was expelled from 
that institution, first, because he had disobeyed orders, in attending prohibited 
meetings of those who were attached to the preaching of Whitefield and Tennant, 
and secondly, because he indiscreetly questioned the piety of one of the tutors, 
and would not acknowledge his error. He then commenced tlieological studies, 
with a view of becoming a missionary, for he ardently desired to be a teacher 
of the poor Indians, in the knowledge of the gospel. At the age of twenty- 
five years he began his labors among the Stockbridge Indians, in the vicinity 
of Kinderhook, New York. lie lived in a wigwam, slept on straw, and ate 
boiled corn, hasty-pudding, and samp. Though feeble in bodj^, and often ill, he 
persevered; and" when, in 1744, his "flock'' agreed to go to Stockbridge, he 
went with his glad tidings to the Delaware Indians. He continued in the vi- 
cinity of Easton nearly a year, during which time ho visited the tribes on the 
Susquehannah in the Wyoming Valley and vicinity. Then he returned, and 
took up his abode among' the New Jersey Indians at Crosswicks, where he was 
re:narkably successful. In less than a year, he baptized seventy-seven converts, 
and the whole tribe became thoroughly reformed in their morals. His health 
gradually gave way, and he was compelled to leave the field of duty, where his 
heart lingered. He went to Boston in July, 1747, and returning to Northamp- 
ton, he took up his abode with Jonathan Edwards. In the family of that great 
and good man his flower of life faded, and when the leaves began to fall in 
Autumn, he fell, like an apple early ripe, into the lap of the grave. His spirit 
went from earth on the 9th of October, 1747, when he was only twenty-nine 
years of age. 

horsewhip mj and steal her, if I would not sell. I tot five pounds pether as a flogging, took it, and he 'a 
got the gal." 



102 



OLIVER ELLSWORTH. 




•.OLIVER ELLSWOllTH. 

VTEVER was the harmony between private and public virtue more complete, 
i\ than that exhibited in tlie character and career of one of the most beloved 
of ^ew England patriots and jurists, Oliver Ellsworth. Ho was born at Wind- 
sor, the point of earliest settlement in Connecticut, on the 29th of April, 114.5. 
His lather was a respectable farmer, and with the strong common sense of lus 
class, he prepared Oliver for the stern duties of life, by habits of labor, applica- 
tion, and frugality. His mental superiority was early discovered, and his father 
alternated the .lad's daily life, between vigorous physical labors, and studies 
preparatorv to a collegiate course of education. Ho entered Yale College at the 
age of seventeen years, but greater advantages appearing at Princeton, ho com- 
pfoted his studies there, where he was graduated in 1766. His talents were not 
brilliant, and precocity did not show blossoms of promise as precursors of the 
fruit of disappointment. Slowly but strongly his intellect unfolded, while ho 
labored with unceasing energy upon a rough form, where his toil was sweetened 
by the sympathies of a charming wife, one of the Wolcott fomily. His evenings 
were devoted to the study of the law. and at the ago of about twenty-five, he 
commenced its practice in the vicinity of Hartford. His ambition soared not to 
place and honor, and the former-lawyer, at that time, gave but little promise 
of being a chief justice of the United States. The electric spark of vitality to 
lii^ latent greatness and loftier aspirations was communicated by a stranger, ia 



BENJAMIN HARIUSON. 103 

court, whom Ellsworth heard remark, and inquire, after one of his forensic efforts, 
" Who is that young man ? He speaks well." Young Ellsworth pondered these 
words, and bright visions of fame broke upon his mind. 

Increase of legal business induced Ellsworth to make Hartford his residence, 
and there ho received the appointment of State's Attorney. As the quarrel with 
Groat Britain progressed, ho was always found on the side of the people. He 
even went to the field with the militia of his State, when the war broke out. 
In 1777, ho was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, and in 1780, 
took a seat in the council of his native State. He continued a member of that 
body until 1784, when he was appointed a judge of the superior court of Con- 
nocticut. Judge Ellsworth was a warm friend of the Federal Constitution, did 
much toward effecting its ratification, in his State, and in 1789, was elected the 
first representative of Connecticut in the Senate of the United States. There ho 
bocame greatly distinguished for his legislative qualities, stern integrity, and 
faithful devotion to the public interest. For seven years he served his country 
nobly in the national councils. In the Spring of 1796, he was appointed chief 
justice of the United States. He was now in the full prime of life, and his mind 
in its utmost vigor. Ho bore the ermine with majesty, and cast it oft" in unsul- 
lied purity when, toward the close of 1799, President Adams appointed him, 
with Davie and Murray, an ambassador to the French court, at tho head of 
which was the youthful Bonaparte. After negotiating a treaty for which they 
were sent, Judge Ellsworth visited other parts of the Continent, and England. 
While lingering in Great Britain for tho beaefit of the health of himself and an 
invalid son, he resigned tho office of chief justice. He returned home early in 
1801, and was immediately elected to the council of his State. His health was 
now becoming impaired by a distressing internal disease ; and when, in May, 
1807, he was appointed chief justice of Connecticut, he dechned the office, for 
ho was conscious that his death was near. Six months afterward, his prophecy 
was fulfilled. He died on the 26th of November, 1807, at the age of sixty-two 
yeara 



BENJAMIN HARRISON 

" 'Wf'^ ^^® about to take a very dangerous step, but we confide in you, and are 
I T ready to support you in every measure you shall think proper to adopt," 
were the significant words of tho constituents of Benjamin Harrison, as he was 
about to proceed to take his seat in the Continental Congress, at Philadelphia, 
in 177i, as a delegate from Virginia. They were the words of men who knew 
their servant well, and allowed no shadow of distrust to cloud their hopes. Ho 
was a patriot of the truest stamp. The exact time of his birth is not certainly 
known. It occurred at Berkeley, the seat of his father, on the James River, a 
few miles above the residence of Colonel Byrd, at Westover. He was educated 
at the college of WiD'am and Mary, at Williamsburg, but on account of the sud- 
den death of his father,' and some difficulty with one of the professors, ho was 
not graduated, and never took his degree. In 1764, young Harrison was elected 
a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he soon became an in- 
fluential leader. He was chosen Speaker of that body, and when the Stamp 
Act excitement shook royal power in Virginia, the governor tried to win him to 
the support of government, by offering him a seat in his council. Harrison re- 

1. The venerable man and two of his four daughters were killed hy lightning, in his house, at Ber- 
keley, duriuff a terrible thunder-storm. 



104 JETIE^IY BELKNAP. 



jected the offer, boldly avowed his republican principles, and from that time 
became itlentified with the revolutionary party in Virgmia. He was one of the 
representatives of Virginia in the first Continental Congress, when his relative, 
Peyton Randolpli, was chosen its president. In the Autumn of 177 5, he wps 
one of a committee of Congress who visited the American army at Cambridge, 
to devise plans for the future, with Washington; and the following year he 
warmly supported, and affixed his signature to, the Declaration of Independence. 
He was a member of the Foreign Committee until its dissolution in 1777, and at 
that time he returned to Virginia, and took his seat in the House of Burgesses. 
He was chosen speaker, and hold that station until 1782, when he was elected 
governor of Virginia. As military lieutenant of his county, he was very active 
in endeavors to capture Arnold, the traitor, and with Nelson, kept the militia 
disciplined and vigilant, until the great victory at Yorktown. Mr. Harrison 
served as governor, two terms, and then retired to private life. He was again 
brought into the public service by being chosen governor, in 1791. On the day 
after the election, he invited a party of friends to dine with him. He had re- 
cently recovered froni a severe attack of gout in the stomach; indulgence on 
that occasion invited its return, and the day following was his last on earth. 
He died in April, 1791, William Henry Harrisofi, the ninth President cf the 
United States, was his son. 



J EKE MY BELKNAP. 

A MOXG the vn-iters of New England, Jeremy Belknap, D.D., holds a high 
/x rank. He was a descendant of one of the early inhabitants of Boston, and 
was born in that city on the 4th of June, 1744. He was prepared for college in 
the grammar school of the celebrated John Lovell, and was graduated at Har- 
vard, in 1762. While a lad, he was remarkable for the beauty and chasteness 
of his compositions, and his friends saw in him the germ of an elegant writer. 
He was equally fluent and correct in his conversation ; and the profession of a 
gospel minister being consonant with his seriousness of thought, he applied him- 
self to the study of theology. In 1767, he was ordained pastor of the church at 
Dover, New Hampshire, where he passed twenty years of his ministerial life, in 
the enjoyment of the cordial esteem of men of ever}'- class. He wrote consider- 
able in favor of the coloDies, before the war, but took very little part in public 
affairs during the llevolution. Toward the close of his labors in Dover, he wrote 
a history of New Hampshire, in two large volumes, which gained him great 
reputation as an accurate chronicler. In 1787, Dr, Belknap was called to the 
pastoral charge of a congregational church in Boston, and there he spent the 
remainder of his years, a faithful minister and an assiduous student. The fields 
of literature had great charms for him, and in pursuit of the pleasures to be found 
therein, he spent much time. The last literary labor of his life was an American 
Biography, in which he exhibited much patient research and careful analysis. 
He did not live to complete it, for, in June, 1798, he was suddenly prostrated 
by paralysis of the whole system, and died on the 20th of that month, at the 
age of fifty-four years. He experienced the "privUege" for which he aspired, 
as expressed in the following lines, found among his papers : 

•' When faith and patience, hope and love, 
Have made us meet for heaven above, 
How blest the privilege to rise, 
Snatched, in a moment, to the skies ! 
Unconscious to resign our breath, 
Nor taste the bitterness of death." 



ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON". 



105 





/m^</A 



ROBERT R. LIVINOSTON. 

ITERY few of the American settlers were descendants of aristocratic families, 
y except the cavaliers of Viro-inia, and as a j^eneral rule, they were staunch 
republicans when the great political question of right and power was to bo de- 
cided between the colonists and Great Britain. Robert Livingston, the first of 
the name who emigrated to America, was a lineal descendant of the Earl cf 
Livingstone,' of Scotland. From him descended the family of that name so 
numerous at the period of the Revolution, and since, and who were all remarl:- 
nble for their unflinching patriotism during the great struggle. Robeit R. 
Livingston was a great grandson of the first "lord of the manor."^ To the care- 
ful research and accurate pen of John W. Francis, M.D., we are indebted for a 
record of the chief events of his life. He was born in the city of New York, in 
1747, and was educated at King's (now Columbia) College, where he was grnd- 
uated in 1764. He studied law under the guidance of WilUam Smith, chief 
justice of New York, and became an eminent practitioner of that profession. 

1. He was hereditafv povernor of Liiililhpow Capfle. in -which Mary, Queen of Scots, was born, and 
his daughter was one of (he four ladies who accompaTiied that unfortunate Queen to France. 

2. The Manor of Livineston, in Oohimbia county, New YorV. It wps one of those manorial estates, 
•stablished under the patroon privileges of the Dutch rule in that province. See note 1, page 260. 

5* 



106 WILLIAM ALEXANDER. 

His zeal for popular liberty was thorougfily awakened during the excitement 
incident to the Stamp Act, and he was an early participant in those movements 
which resulted in revolution. The brave General Montgomery, who fell at 
Quebec, had married his sister, and that event intensified his devotion to the 
republican cause. In 1776, he was elected a member of the Continental Con- 
gress, at the same time holding tlie office of delegate in the Provincial Congress 
of New York. He was appointed one of the committee to draft a Declaration 
of Independence, but, being called to duties at home, before the final vote was 
taken, his name does not appear upon that instrument. 

Mr. Livingston was made Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Secretary of State) 
when the new organization of government, under the Articles of Confederation, 
was completed; and performed the duties of that station with rare ability, until 
1783, when he was appointed Chancellor of the State of New York. He was a 
warm supporter of the Federal Constitution, in the New York convention held 
at Poughkeepsie in 1788, to consider it; and on the 30th of April, the following- 
year, he administered the oath of office to Washington, the first President of the 
United States. In 1801, Mr. Jefferson appointed him resident minister at the 
court of Napoleon, and he successfully negotiated the purchase of Louisian.n, 
from the French, for fifteen millions of dollars. By his enlightened patronage 
of Robert Fulton, in his experiments in steam navigation, he conferred a lasting 
benefit on mankind, and his name will always be honorably associated with that 
inventor, and the wonderful results of those experiments. Chancellor Livingston 
died at his seat, at Clermont, in Columbia county, on the 26th of February, 1813, 
in the sixty-sixth years of his age. "His person," says Dr. Francis, who knew 
him intimately, "was tall and commanding, and of patrician dignity. Gentle 
and courteous in his manners, pure and upright in his morals, his benefactions 
to the poor were numerous and unostentatious. In his life, ho was without 
reproach — in death, victorious over its terrors." 



WILLIAM ALEXANDER. 

ANLY one, of all the American officers of the Revolution, bore a title of nobility 
\J lay descent of patent, and his was disputed and denied. That officer was 
William Alexander, who claimed the title of Earl of Stirling. He was the son 
of James Alexander, of Scotland, who took refuge in America, in 1716, after a 
warm participation in the cause of the son of James the Second, "pretender" to 
the rightfal heirship of the throne of England. William was born in the city of 
New York, in 1726. His mother was the widow of David Provoost, a bold 
smuggler in the early part of the last century, and v/ell known by the name of 
" Ready Money Provoost." Young Alexander joined the army in the French 
and Indian war, and was secretary to General Shirley. He accompanied that 
officor to England, in 1755, and there made the acquaintance of some of the 
leading men of the realm. By their advice, he instituted proceedings to obtain 
the title of Earl of Stirling, to which liis father was heir-presumptive when ho 
left Scotland. Although he did not obtain a legal recognition of the title, his 
rJQjht to it was generally conceded, and from that time he was addressed as Earl 
of Stirling. He returned to America in 1761, married the daughter of Philip 
Livingston (sister of Governor Livingston, of New Jersey), and built a fine man- 
sion, on his estate, at Baskenridge. He was a member of the New Jersey 
Provincial Council for a number of years ; and when the choice between repub- 
licanism and royalty had to be made, he was found on the side of the peopla 



TIMOTHY DWIGHT. 107 



In 1775, the Provincial Convention of New Jersey appointed him colonel of the 
first regiment of militia, and in March, 1776, Congress gave him the commission 
of a brigadier. General Lee left him in command at New York in April, and in 
August, he fought valiantly in the battle near Brooklyn, and was made prisoner. 
Ho was exchanged ; and in February following. Congress made him a major- 
general. He performed active and varied services until the Summer of 1781, 
when he was ordered to the command of the northern army, with his head- 
quarters at Albany. An invasion from Canada was then expected. Indeed it 
was commenced under St. Leger, but the vigorous preparations of Stirling in- 
timidated him, and the scheme was abandoned. Late in the Autumn, he tec k 
command in New Jersey, and had jurisdiction and general supervision of military 
aftairs, in that State and in New York, to Fishkill above the Hudson Highlanc's. 
Lord Stirling was again in command at Albany, in 1782, where he died, on the 
15th of January, 1783, in the fifty-seventh. year of his age. It is a singular fact, 
that during the War for Independence, Lord Stirling had command, at different 
times, of every brigade of the American army, except those of South Carolina 
and Georgia. 



TIMOTHY DWIGHT. 

TWENTY days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the 
Continental Congress, a young man, twenty four years of age, addressed 
the students of Yale College on the subject of the future of the States then just 
declared "free and independent," in language truly prophetic' That young 
prophet was Timothy Dwight, a grandson of the celebrated Jonathan Edwards, 
and many years the honored president of that ancient institution of learning. 
He was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, on the 14th of May, 1752. He 
was educated at Yale College, where he was graduated in 1769. From that 
period, until 1771, he taught a grammar school, in New Haven, and at the .^^ame 
time he devoied eight hours each day to severe study. At the age of nineteen 
years he was chosen a tutor in Yale College, and performed the duties of his 
station with great satisfaction for six years. It was while he was engaged in 
that vocation that he delivered the address above alluded to. He took his 
second degree in 1772, and, on that occasion, he dehvered a learned disseitation 
on the history, eloc|uence, and poetry of the Bible. At about that time he com- 
menced his sacred epic. The Conquest of Canaan, and finished it at the age of 
twenty-two years. Severe application and want of bodily exercise now seriously 
affected his health, but it was speedily restored by a change of habits, and sick- 
ness was a stranger to him eluring the next forty years.^ 

Mr. Dwight married in the Spring of 1777; and in June following, he wns 
licensed to preach the gospel. In September, he withdrew from the college, 
was appointed chaplain to General Parson's brigade, and joined the Continental 



1. After speaking of the establishment of a republican grovernmert, havirp: for its basis the virtue rrd 
intelligence of the people, he referred to the necessarv influence which s-uch a goverrmert would hr.ve 
on the general advancement of mankind. He spoke of the yet undeveloped reeouices of the foilri.d 
mines, the organization of new States, thevas^t iucrea'e of population ; and then referred to Uie cor.dilion 
of that portion of the Continent under Spanish rule, from which during the last twenty years, we have 
received such vast accessions of territory. Afler speaking of Ihe vices and degradation of (he people, 
he says, " the vioment our intere.it demandi if , these extensive region.itciU he our own ; Ihe presert rnca 
of inhabitants will either be entirely exterminated, or revive 1o ihe native human dignify, by the gen- 
eious and beneficent influence of just laws and rational f eedom." 

2. He was always afflicted with a painful disease of the eyes, caused by his intense use of them in 
study too soon after recovering from the small-pox. 



108 



TIMOTHY D WIGHT. 




^4<^.^^l^ 



There he wrote several patriotic songs, 



Army, at West Point, on the Hndson. 
of which the one commencing, 

" Columbia ! Columbia I to glory arise, 
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies," 

Avas the most celebrated. That, too, like his addi'ess the year before, was truly 
prophetic. On receiving the news of his father's death, ho left the army, settled 
at the homestead in Northampton, and with filial regard cherished his aged 
mother, for several years. He preached occasionally in the neighboring towns, 
and superintended a school at Hadlej^ In 1781, ho was elected a member of 
tli3 Massachusetts legislature, but he soon abandoned civil employment for tliat 
of clerical duties. He was ordained pastor of a church at Greenfield, near Fair- 
fnld, Connecticut, where he opened an academy, and labored industriously in 
th3 cause of religion and education, for twelve years. The building in which he 
taught school, on "Greenfield Hill," is yet [1854] standing. In 1785, his Con- 
quest of Canaan was first published, three thousand subscribers for it having 
been obtained. In 1794, another poem, cahed Creenfield Hill, was published, 
and increased his fame as an epic poet. Higher and more arduous duties now 
awaited him. On the death of Dr. Stiles, in 1795, he was chosen President of 
Yale College, and for ten years performed the duties and received the emolu- 
ments of Professor of Theology, in that institution, by annual appointment, when 



CPIRISTOPHER GADSDEN. 109 

the office became permanent. In 1800, he comiDleted his revision of Watts' 
Psauns and Hymns, to which he added tliirty-nine of his own; and in 1809, lie 
pubMshed almost two hundred of his most important sermons, in five volumes. 
From 1805 until 1815, he spent his college vacations in travelling through New 
England and the State of New York, taking full notes of what he saw and heard. 
These formed the basis of his published Travels, in four volumes. After suffer- 
ing for nearly a year from an acute disease, he died, on tlie 11th of January, 
1817, at the age of almost sixty- live years. Dr. D wight was the author of a 
great manj'- published discourses and pamphlets on various subjects, chiefly of a 
theological and philosophical character. 



C H K I S T O P H E R Gf A D S D E N . 

TORIES, or those who adhered to Great Britain when the War for Independ- 
ence commenced, were very numerous in South Carolina, and it required 
greater courage on the part of the Whigs, or opposers of government, to avow 
their principles, than in communities where such loyalists were exceptions. Bold 
among the boldest, was Christopher Gadsden in denouncing British oppression, 
even as early as the period of the Stamp Act.' He was a native of Charleston, 
South Carolina, where he was born in 1724. He was sent "home," as England 
was called, to be educated, and remained several years with his relatives in the 
west of England. He returned to Charleston at the age of sixteen years, and was 
soon afterward apprenticed to a merchant in Philadelphia, where he remained 
till he was twenty-one years of age. Ho then went to England; and on the 
death of the purser of the vessel in which he returned, he was appointed to fill 
his place. lie retained that situation two years, and then engaged in mercantile 
business in Charleston. 

Gadsden's father owned a large property in Charleston, but lost it all in play 
with Lord Anson, a celebrated admiral in the British navy, who visited that 
city in 1733. That portion of the town still benrs the name of Ansonborough. 
Christopher was successful, purchased all the property that once belonged to 
his father, and lived in the "Anson house," as it was called, till his death. 
Henry Laurens was his nearest neighbor and dearest friend, and they always acted 
shoulder to shoulder as unflinching patriots. Gadsden was appointed a delegate 
to the Congress which assembled at New York in 17G5, in consequence of the 
passage of the Stamp Act; and from that period, through all the storms of the 
Revolution, until the fall of Charleston, in 1780, he was regarded as the most 
reliable of the patriot leaders, both civil and military. He was chosen a delegate 
to the first Continental Congress, in 1774 ; and in that body, urged an immediate 
attack upon General Gage at Boston, before he should be reinforced by fresh 
troops from Great Britain. He was considered rash, but the measure was only 
delayed a few months. 

In 1775, Mr, Gadsden was elected senior colonel of three regiments raised at 
Charleston, and was subsequently made a brigadier. He was active at the time 
of the attack on Charleston, in 1776; and two years afterward he gave his 
efficient aid in forming a republican constitution for his native State. Ho re- 
signed his military commission in 1779, and was heutenant-governor of the State, 

1. Under a wide-spreading live oak, a little rorlli of the residence of Mr. Gadsden, the patriots used 
to assemble during the Summer and Autumn of 1765, and even the next Summer, after the Stainij Act 
was repealed, to discuss the political question of the day. From that circumstance, the green oak, like 
the famous Boston elm, was called Uherty Tree. Under that tree. Gadsden boldly warned the people, 
m 1776, not to rejoice too much, for the repeal was only a show of justice. 



110 SAMUEL SEALURY. 



when Charleston was captured by Sir^Henry Clinton, in May, 1780. A few 
weeks after the capitulation, he was treacherously taken from his bed at night, 
and, with others, was conveyed on board prison ships, in violation of the solemn 
stipulations contained in the articles of capitulation. They were taken to St. 
Augustine; and because the venerable patriot would not submit to indignities 
at the hands of Governor Tonyn, he was cast into a loathsome prison, where he 
remained until exchanged in June, 1781, eleven months afterward. Prom St. 
Augustine he sailed to Philadelphia, with other prisoners. On liis return to 
Charleston, he was elected a member of the State legislature, where, notwith- 
standing his bad treatment, he generously opposed the confiscation of the prop- 
erty of the Loyalists. He was elected governor of his State, in 1782, but declined 
the honor. He remained in private life until his death, on the 28th of August, 
1805, at the age of eighty-one years. 



SAMUEL SEA BURY. 

THE first Protestant Bishop, in the United States, was the son of a Congrega- 
tional minister who preached at Groton, Connecticut, and afterward became 
an episcopal clergyman at New London. That son, Samuel Seabury, was born 
at New London, in 1728; was graduated at Yale College, in 1751, and was or- 
dained a priest, in London, England, in 1753. He had previously commenced a 
course of medical study, in Scotland, but circumstances caused him to choose 
the ministry as a profession, and he studied theology, in London. On his return 
to America, he was settled in the ministry at New Brunswick, New Jersey, for 
a little while, and then he complied with a call to Jamaica, Long Island, where 
he remained from 1757 until the close of 1766. Prom Jamaica he went to West 
Chester, in "Westchester county, Now York, and there he was settled when the 
war of the Revolution broke out. Like many of his clerical brethren, he adhered 
to the crown ; and in consequence of his signing a protest against the measures 
of the Whigs, he became very obnoxious to the republican party. 

In the Autumn of 1775, a party of horsemen, led by Isaac Sears, of New 
York, came from Connecticut, entered the city at noon-day, destroyed the print- 
ing-press of James Rivington (the editor of the Royal Gazette), carried off his 
types, to the tune of Yankee Doodle, and made bullets of them. On their way 
back to Connecticut, they seized Mr. Seabury, conveyed him to New Haven, 
kept him a prisoner there, for some time, and then paroled him to Long Island. 
He had kept a school at West Chester, for some time. That was broken up, and 
his church was converted into a hospital. Pinding no peace within the limits 
of his parole, he fled to the arms of the British in New York, after they had 
taken possession of that city in the Autumn of 1776. He served as a chaplain 
to Colonel Panning's corps of Loyalists, toward the close of the Revolution, and 
when peace came, he returned to his native town. In 1784, at the request of 
his clerical and lay brethren in the East, Mr. Seabury went to London, to seek 
episcopal consecration. Some difficulties prevented the accomplishment of his 
wishes, and he went to Scotland, where, on the 4th of November, of that year, 
he was consecrated a Bishop, by three non-juring prelates of the Scottish Church.' 
He presided over the diocese of Connecticut and Rhode Island, with great dig- 

1. Those who regarded the deposition of James the Second, in 1688, as illegal, and refused to swear 
allegiance to the new sovereigns, William and Mary, his successors. Among these were several Scotch 
Bisiiops, who were deprived of their sees, in 1690. The Scotch Episcopal Church has always differed 
fjom that of England, in ecclesiastical matters, and its ministers have been called i.OTi-jurors, "even until 
now. 



THOMAS NELSON, JR. Ill 

nity and energy, for about twelve years, when he was called to give an account 
of his stewardship to his heavenly Master. lie was buried at New London, 
where he expired, and over his grave is a plain, elevated slab, upon which it is 
recorded that he died on the 25th of February, 1798, in the sixty-eighth year 
of his age. The piety and benevolence of Bishop Seabury endeared him to all, 
of whatever name or creed, for he was a true Christian. 



THOMAS NELSON, JR. 

SELF-SACRIFICING- patriotism was frequently exhibited during the revolu- 
tionary struggle, and oftentimes private property was cheerfully given for 
the public good. Everywhere, personal ease and family endearments were 
abandoned for the hardships of public life. Thomas Nelson, jr., of Yorktown, 
Virginia, was of that class of patriots. Ho was born at Yorktown, on the 26th 
of December, 1738. According to the common practice among the wealthy, in 
Virginia, at that time, he was sent to England to bo educated, where ho remained 
until 1761, when he returned home. He watched the progress of diflSculties 
between Great Britain and her colonies with lively interest, and his sympathies 
were always with the latter. Ho first appeared in public hfe, in 1774, when ho 
was elected a member of the House of Burgesses, of Virginia, and he was ono 
of eighty-nine members of that assembly who, when dissolved by tho royal 
governor (Dunmore), met at the Raleigh tavern, organized, and appointed dele- 
gates to the first Continental Congress. Ho was a member of a provincial con- 
vention held in the Spring of 1775, in which Patrick Henry uttered those sublime 
words, " Give me liberty or give me death T and was one of the boldest patriots 
therein. He there first proposed the organization of the militia of tho colony, 
for the defence of its liberties, and ho was appointed to the command of a regi- 
ment after such organization was effected. He was elected to a seat in tho 
Continental Congress, in 1775, and tho following year he signed tho Declaration 
of Independence. In 1777, severe and protracted illness compelled him to resign 
his seat and return home. By activity in military life, for awhile, Mr. Nelson's 
health was improved, and he was again elected a delegate to Congress, in 1779. 
But ill health compelled him to resign in April following. When British dep- 
redators by land and sea menaced that portion of tho country, General Nelson, 
at the head of the militia of Lower Virginia, was active in its defence. In 1781, 
he succeeded Jefferson, as governor of the State ; and in both civil and military 
capacities, he was exceedingly active and efficient. He even pledged his private 
fortune as security for the State, in order to raise funds to keep tho militia in the 
field ; and the combined French and American armies found him a powerful 
auxiliary in tho siege of Yorktown, in the Autumn of 1781. During that siege, 
his own fine mansion, situated within tho enemy's lines, was occupied by British 
officers. He observed that in the storm of balls which the besiegers were pour- 
ing upon the town and tho British works, his own house was spared. He begged 
the cannoniers not to regard his property with favor, and actually directed a 
piece himself, so that the balls would fall upon his mansion. It had the effect 
to drive the officers from that strong retreat, and no doubt hastened the sur- 
render of Cornwallis. A month after the surrender. General Nelson heeded the 
warnings of declining health, and retired to private life. The remainder of his 
days were spent in quiet, alternately at his mansion in Yorktown, and upon his 
estate at Oftley. He died at the former place on the 4th of January, 1789, in 
the fifty-third year of his age. 



J12 



MASON L. WEEMS. 




MASON L. WEEMS. 

IT is a singular fact that Dr. Wecms, the earliest biographer of Washington 
and Marion, a man extensively known in the world of letters, and who oc- 
cupied a largo place in the public attention, while he lived, should be almost 
without a record in his country's annals. I have never met with a notice of the 
time and place of his birth. Ho received a good plain education, studied the 
science of medicine, as a life avocation, but became a preacher of the Gospel, in 
communion with the Protestant Episcopal Church, in Virginia. He officiated, 
for awhile, in Pohick church, a few miles from Mount Vernon, of which AVasli- 
ington was vestryman previous to the Revolution, and who was also one of 
Weems' parishioners afterward. Mr. Weems was a man of very considerable 
attainments as a scholar, physician, and divine ; and his philanthropy and be- 
nevolence were unbounded. Ho used wit and humor freely; and his eccentric- 
ities and sometimes singular conduct, lessened the esteem of people for his 
character as a clergyman. He wrote lives of Washington, Penn, Franklin, and 
Marion, when an increasing family, and the operations of benevolence, made 
heavy drafts upon his income. He also became an agent for the sale of a 
quarto Bible, published by the eminent Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, at the 
commencement of the present century, in which business he was wonderfully suc- 
cessful. He always preached, when invited, during his travels, and harangued 
people at public gatherings at courts and fairs, where he offered his Bibles, and 
otner good books, for sale. His fund of anecdote was inexhaustible ; and after 



PHINEAS LYMAN. 113 



giving a promiscuous audience the highest entertainment of fun, he found them 
in good mood to purchase his books. In his vocation, he accomplished a vast 
amount of good ; and a large family and numerous friends lamented his death 
with the most earnest grief He died at Beaufort, South Carolina, on the 23d 
of May, 1825, at an advanced age. 



PHINEAS LYMAN. 

ASSURANCE, supported by titled influence, often wears an epaulette and a 
star, while true merit is rewarded with faint praise and an honorable sea)-. 
Such a lesson of life did experience teach Phineas Lyman, a brave officer of 
provincial troops, during the French and Indian war. He was born in Dui ham, 
Connecticut, m the year 1716. He was one of the Berkeleyan scholars in Yale,^ 
and received his firpt degree in 1738. The following year he was appointed a 
tutor in that institution, in which avocation he was engaged for three years, at 
the same time he wa«i studying the theory of law. Ho commenced its practice 
at Suffield, in 1743, and he soon arose to the front rank at the bar of Hampshire 
county. He was elected a member of the Colonial Assembly, in 1750, and in 
1753, was chosen to a seat in the council. At the age of thirty-nine years, he 
was appointed major-general of the Connecticut forces, and took the field in the 
Spring of 1755. He concentrated between five and six thousand troops on the 
upper waters of the Hudson, built Fort Edward, and there awaited the arrival of 
his commander-in-chief. General William Johnson, who was to lead the provin- 
cials against the F'-ench on Lake Champlain. The fortress was first called Fort 
Lyman, in honor of the Connecticut general, but its name M^as changed in defer- 
ence to a scion of royalty. In the severe battle with the French and Indians, 
near the head of Lake George, in September of that year, General Lyman bore 
the most conspicuous part, and yet Johnson, jealous of his merits, withheld 
praise. Through the agency of titled friends at court, Johnson received the 
patent of a bai'onet, and twenty thousand dollars to support its dignity, as a 
reward for a victory won chiefly through the skill and bravery of General Ly- 
man. The patriotic hero did not allow j crsonal considerations to stand in the 
way of public duty, and he served Avitli distinction during the whole war. He 
was the commander of the expedition which captured Havana, in 1762; and 
after the peace in 1763, he went to England, as agent of a company called The 
Military Adventurers — soldiers of the war — who r.sked for an appropriation of 
land for a colony in the Mississippi and Yazoo country. The same company had 
purchased an extensive tract of land on the Susquchannah, and General Lyman 
was intrusted with the management of matters connected with that purchase. 
Deluded month after month by idle promises from the changing ministry, in 
England, he at length came back, after wasting eleven years abroad, and almoft 
losing his mind. He returned in 1774, and at about that time, a tract of land 
having been granted, in the Mississippi and Yazoo country, he went thither, 
with his eldest son. Both died in "West Florida," in 1775, and the following 
year, his wife and all her family, except her second son, went thither. She 
soon died ; and a few years afterward, difficulties with the Spaniards caused the 
whole company of settlers, near Natchez, to fly for their safety across the country, 
a thousand miles, to Savannah. The history of General Lyman's family is a 
melancholy one. He died at the age of fifty-nine years, a victim of ingratitude 
and injustice. 

1. From Bishop Berkeley, who was a patron of Yale College. He endowed a proressorship known as 
the Berkeleyan. 



114 JOHN MANLEY. 



JOHN MANLEY. 

THE naval operations of the United States during the Revolution were f.;r 
more extensive and important than is generally supposed, especially in the 
privateer department. It is asserted, by good authority, that the number of 
vessels captured by American cruisers, during the war, was eight hundred and 
three ; and that the value of merchandise obtained, amounted to over eleven 
millions of dollars. Among the earlier and most intrepid of the naval com- 
manders of that period, was John Manley, who received his commission from 
Washington, at Cambridge, on the 24th of October, 1775,^ and was put in com- 
mand of the schooner Lee, with instructions to cruise in Massachusetts Bay. 
He made a great many captures, and his services became the theme of eulogium 
throughout the whole country. Among his prizes was an ordnance brig, which 
contained heavy guns, mortars, and intrenching tools, of great value to the army 
then besieging the British, in Boston. When Congress organized a navy, the 
services of Captain Manley were appreciated, and he was raised to the command 
of the Hancock, thirty-two guns. He cruised with success, but on the desertion 
of a colleague, while engaged with the Rainbow (afterward the flag-ship of 
Admiral Collier, in the Autumn of 1777, when on our coast with a small fleet), 
he was made a prisoner, on the 8th of July, 1777. Manley suffered a long and 
rigorous confinement in the Eainbow, and at Halifax, and his services were lost 
to the country for almost the entire remainder of the war. He was released in 
1782, and the frigate, Hague, was placed under his command. While cruising 
in the West Indies, he was chased by a British seventy-four, and driven on a 
sand bank. Three other ships of the line attacked him, but after sustaining their 
heavy fire for four days, he got his vessel off", hoisted the continental flag, fired 
thirteen guns as a parting salute, and escaped. On his return to Boston, he was 
tried on some charges made against him by one of his officers, and his reputation 
was under a partial cloud, for a time. He died in Boston on the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, 1793, at the age of fifty-nine years, and was buried with military honors. 



a 1 1. BERT CHARLES STUART. 

IN the beautiful region of Rhode Island, at a place called Narraganset, the 
handsome wife of a Scotch snuft-maker gave birth to a son, who became the 
most distinguished portrait-painter in America. His father's name was Stuart, 
and his loyalty to the young claimant of the English throne, 2 made him add 
Charles to the name of Gilbert, given to his boy. Gilbert Charles Stuart was 
born in 1754, and at a very early age manifested great energy of character and 
a decided talent for art. At the age of thirteen years he practised drawing 
likenesses with black-lead pencil, and at the age of eighteen he commenced a 
course of instruction, in painting, under an amateur artist, named Alexander. 
He was pleased with the lad, took him with him on a tour in the Southern States, 

1. Washington caused six vessels to lie fitted out for the purpose of cruising on the New England 
coast. These were very efficient. They made many prizes, from which the American army, early in 
1776, was quite well supplied with cannon, mortars, halls, amnmnition, and stores. The siege of Boston 
and expulsion of the British therefrom, could not have heen accomplished without those supplies from 
captured British vessels. Toward the close of 1775, the Continental Congress adopted measaies for 
organizing and employing a navy. 

2. Charles Edward Stuart, a grandson of .Tflmes the Second, who was driven from the throne in 1688. 
His son made an effort to gain the throne of his f uhor. in 1716. Th^? efforts of his grandson were pu» 
forth in rt5, h it -^f e the greit b-t-.K' j;t C-llodc-'. h.' beams a fi'ciiive. 



GILBERT CHARLES STUART. 



115 




p^f^ ^^ 



id finally invited him to go to Scotland with him, Mr. Alexander died soon 
ter his arrival at Edinburgh, and left his pupil in the care of Sir George Cham- 
^rs. He, too, died, and young Stuart returned to Newport, as a competent 
jrtrait-painter. The late Dr. Benjamin Waterhouso was Stuart's intimate friend, 
irongh life; and in the Winter of 1 773-4, they practiced the drawing of the 
;man figure from life, by procuring a muscular blacksmith for a model. This 
as the first "Life School of Design," in America, and Stuart and his friend 
Taterhouse were the only students. 

The troubles of the Revolution affected Stuart's business, and in the Autumn 
' 1775, he went to England. Being a skilful musician, as well as painter, 
tuart gained a subsistence by practicing both arts.' His friend "Waterhouso 
•as then in London, perfecting his medical studies, and he procured Stuart 
)me sitters, but his eccentric habits Avere a continual bar to j)ermanent pros- 
erity. After two years' residence there, he became acquainted with West, and 
)und in him a friend and benefactor. In the studio of that great artist he be- 
ime an industrious pupil, and there he first became acquainted with Trumbull. 
a 1781, he set up an easel for himself, had continual and highly-remunerative 
mployraent, and might have become the successor of Reynolds, as the first 
ortrait-painter in Great Britain, had not intemperate habits, which were increasing 

1. While in extreme poverty, in TiOndon, Stuart was attracted liv the found of an orp:an in an open 
lurch. He went in, ascertained Ihat several persons were exhibiting their skill as candidates for or- 
inist, and boldly asked permission to evter the lists. It was granted, and the young stranger -waa 
losen at a salary quite sufficient to meet his wants. 



116 willia:.! te2n'next. I 

in proportion to liis prosperity, thwarted the aspirations of his genius. He went 
to Dublin, where he was courted for his wit and conviviality, and finally re- 
turned to America, in 1793, His fame had preceded him, and his studio in New ' 
York was thronged with sitters and admirers. Filled with an ardent desire to ■ 
paint a portrait of Washington, he visited Philadelphia, and there he produced | 
that great picture of the Patriot, wliich is regarded as the perfect model for all | 
correct likenesses of the revered Father of his Country. Stuart was so pleased j 
with Pennsylvania, while residing in Philadelphia and at Germantown, that ho, 
contemplated purchasing a firm at Pottsgrove, and making that his permanent ' 
residence. His irregular habits, as usual, interfered witli his plans, and we find 
him in Washington City, after the removal of the seat of government thither, | 
In 1805, he settled in Boston, where he continued in the practice of his pio- 
fession, until his death, which occurred in July, 1828, at the age of seventy-four 
3^ears. The original portrait of Washington, from his pencil, is the property of' 
the Boston Athenoeum, His last work is a head of John Quincy Adams, k 
tended for a fall-lcngth portrait cf that statesman. 



WILLIAM T E N N E N T . 

MEN sometimes become more distinguished by their connection with remai 
able circumstances, than for any achievements of their own, and their re 
line gold of character is lost in tlie glitter of extraneous events. At this dj 
that powerful preacher and indefatigable servant of Christ, William Tennent, i^ 
iDctter known to the world "as a man who lay in a trance," than as a laborer' 
for the good of his fellow-men. He was born in Ireland, on the 8d of June,i 
1705, and came to America when in the fourteenth year of his age. Under the 
care of his brother, Gilbert, he studied theology so ardently, at New Brunswick, 
in New Jersey, that his health gave way, his body became emaciated, and one 
morning, while conversing with his brother, in Latin, on the state cf his soul, 
he fainted, and seemed to expire. Tic was prepared for burial, r.nd the funerar 
procession was about to move, when his physician, who had been absent, re- 
turned, and thought he discovered indications cf lingering life. But his bodj 
was cold and stiff, and his brother insisted upon his burial. The funeral, how- 
ever, was postponed for awhile, and just as they Vicrc about to start again foi 
tho grave, Mr. Tennent opened his eyes, gave a groan, and again appeared life- 
less, lie revived, slowly recovered, but for a long time he was totally ignorani 
of every past transaction of his life. Suddenly his faculties began to resume 
their functions, and in 1733, he vras ordained a minister of the church at Free 
hold, New Jersey. That church, and the house in which he lived, are yei 
[1854] standing. He never forgot the scenes of that cataleptic state in whicl 
lio lay when his friends thought him dead. Tie seemed to have been wafted t( 
a region of ineffable glory, where he heard things unutterable. He was accom 
panied by a heavenly conductor, and on asking permission to join Ih.e happj 
throng of beings before liim, the guide tapped him upon the shoulder, and said 
"You must return to earth." That was the moment when ho opened his eyes 
and saw his brother disputing with the doctor. Although he had been insen 
sible for three days, the time did not seem to him more than twenty minutes^ 
After a life of great usefulness as pastor of the flock at Freehold, for forty-thre< 
years, the storm of the Revolution disturbed him, and with his family, he wen" 
to reside with his son, in South Carolina. On his journey from Charleston t( 
the interior, when about fifty miles from the sea-board, he sickened and died 
Elias Boudinot was his executor, but he could never discover any trace of Ten 
nent's papers. His death occurred on the 8th of March, 1777. 



JOEL BARLOW. 117 



JOEL BARLO\V. 

,F Barlow, the youngest of the triad of American poets during the struggle 
' for independence,' it might have frequently been said, 

" Th3 Minstrel Boy to the war has gone, 
la the lauks of death you '11 find him," 

' during his vacations at Yale College, he would shoulder his musket, offer 
'mself as a volunteer, at the nearest camp, and fight bravely when opportunity 
curred. Joel Barlow was the youngest of the ten children of a respectable 

mer, and was born at Reading, in Connecticut, in the year 1754, Ho was 
aduated at Yale, in 1778, when he bore a sligltt scar, received in the battle 

White Plains two years before. Four of his brothers were in the Continental 
my, and his wliolo being was thoroughly imbued with republican principles. 
b married a sister of Abraham Baldwin, a distinguished statesman of Conncc- 
ut, and in 1783, he settled at Westford, and commenced the publication of a 
per, called The M^rcm-y. Although, at the close of his collegiate course, he 
d studied theology six weeks, and was licensed to preach, he preferred the 
ofession of the law; and in 1785, he was regularly admitted to the bar, as a 
actitioner. His poetic talents were now widely known and appreciated ; and 
at same year, at the request of several congregational ministers, he prepared 
" published a revised edition of Watts' poetic version of the Psalms,- and 
ded to them a collection of hymns, several of them from his own pen. In 1787, 

published his most ambitious poem hitherto attempted, entitled, " Vision of 
ilumbm,^^ which was dedicated to Louis the Sixteenth of France, and was re- 
blished in London and Paris, with applause from the critics. With Trumbull, 
iimphreys, D wight, an I others, he published a satirical poem, called The An- 

\iad. Others soon followed; when, becoming enamored with the principles 
the French Revolution, he went to Paris, was honored by the gift of citizen- 
ip, made France his home for many years, and by successful commercial pur- 
its, he amassed a large fortune. During the worst of the Revolution (whose 
irrid scenes disgusted him), he travelled over portions of the Continent, and in 
edmoat he wrote his celebrated poem, called Hasty Pudding. On his return 

Paris, in 1795, Washington appointed him consul at Algiers, with power to 
fgotiate a treaty with that government, and those of Tunis and Tripoli. After 

absence of seventeen years, he returned to America, with his fortune, and 
lilt an elegant mansion on the east branch of the Potomac, near Washington city, 
fiich he afterward calleJ " Kalorama." He enlarged his original " Vision of 
\>lu'nhLis,'' and in 1807, it was published under the title of The ColumUad, in a 
lendid quarto volume, richly illustrated, and inscribed to his friend, Robert 
jlton. In 1811, he coaT.nenced the preparation of a History of the United States^ 
hen President Madison appointed him minister plenipotentiary to the French 
yyernment. The following year, the Duke of IBassano invited him to a con- 
rence with N'apoleon, at Wilna, in Poland, The call was urgent, and he 
avelled thither, night and day, without rest. The fatigue and exposure brought 
1 a disease of the lungs, which terminated his life at Zarnowica, near Cracow, 
ii the 4th of December, 1812, when in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 

jl. John Trumbull, David Humphreys, and Joel Barlow. 

2. On one occasion Mr. Barlow met Oliver Arnold, a cousin of the traitor, in a boob-store in New 

liven, and asked him for a specimen of hi^ talent for making extempore rhymes. Oliver at once said, 

I allusion to Barlow's version of the Psalms : 

' " You 've proved yourself a sinful cre'tur ; 

You 've murdered Watts and spoiled the meter ; 

You 've tried the word of God to alter, 

And for your pains deserve a halter," 



118 SAMUEL BARD. 



SAMUEL BARD. 

THE medical profession in the United States has included many of our noblest 
citizens, distinguished alike for their patriotism, learning, and benevolence. ■ 
Samuel Bard, who adorned the profession by the exercise of all these qualities, 
was the son of an eminent physician, in Philadelphia, where he was born on 
the 1st of April, 1742. His early moral and intellectual training was thorough, 
and the associations of his childhood and youth were fovorablo to the develop- 
ment of his genius. While residing a short time in the famil}^ of Doctor Cad- 
wallader Golden, he acquired a taste for botany, under the teachings of an ac- 
complished daughter of that gentleman. A genius for drawing and painting 
enabled him to make beautiful copies of plants, some of which are yet in his 
family. He was graduated at Columbia College, in 1761, and the same year ho 
went to Europe, to obtain a thorough medical education. He was absent iu 
France, England, and Scotland, five years ; and such was his skill In botany, ' 
that he obtained the annual medal given by Professor Hope, at Edinburgh, for 
the best collection of plants, in 1765. He there received his degree, returned 
home, entered into partnership with his father, and in 1768, married his beauti- 
ful cousin, Mary Bard. He made Kew York his residence the same year, and 
there he formed and executed the plan of founding the Medical School of New^ 
York, where degrees were conferred in 1709. Ho delivered a course of chemical 
lectures in 1774, but the breaking out of the Revolution deranged all his plans 
for the improvement of his profession. His father was then residing at Hydel 
Park, in Dutchess county, New York, and thither he took his family, for safety.' 
By special permission of the British commander, he went to New York, in 1777,' 
and engaged anew in his business. But bis old friends, who were chiefly Whigs, 
had jaAl fled, and he did not obtain practice sufficient to pay his expenses. He 
returned to the country, and remained there until the British evacuated the city 
m the Autumn of 1783, when he again resumed his practice there. He did not 
remain long. Four of his children died by prevailing scarlatina, and at the same 
time the health of his wife began to fail. He withdrew from business to attend 
upon her; and at her recovery, in 1784, he again commenced the practice of his. 
profession, in New York. He was very successful, and with his own means, he 
liquidated all the debts of his father, which misfortune had burdened him with. 
Having acquired a competency, he resolved to retire from active business, and 
for that purpose ho formed a partnership with the late Dr. David Hosack. on the 
1st of January, 1796. This connection continued four years, when Dr. Bard 
withdrew wholly from the practice of his profession, and left the extensive busi- 
ness in the hands of his skilful young partner. At his beautiful seat, near the 
residence of his fiither at Hyde Park, he sat down in the retirement of private 
life ; but when, three years afterward, the yellow fever appeared in New York, 
he yielded to the calls of duty, and was "the beloved lAysician" of the rich and 
poor during that trying time. He finally took the disease himself, but the care- 
ful nursing of his wife, and his own skilful prescriptions, carried him safely 
through. Then again he left the field of active duty as a physician, never to 
return to it. In 1813, he was elected president of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons, of New York, and held that office until his death, which occurred on 
the 24th of March, 1821. at the age of seventy-nine years. His disease was 
pleurisy. He and his wife had often expressed a desire to both die at the same 
time. The privilege was vouchsafed to them. The faithful wife died the day 
preceding the death of her husband, of the same disease, and they were buried 
in one grave. 



MARTHA WASHINGTON. 



119 




MARTHA WASHINGTON. 

THE reflected glory ot' Washington's character gave distinction to all who were 
connected with him by domestic ties or the bonds of consanguinity. There 
were many matrons of his day, equally noble and virtuous as she who bore him, 
yet "Mary, the mother of Washington," appears the most illustrious of them all. 
Beauty, accomplishments and noble worth belonged to Martha Dandridge as a 
maiden, and Martha Custis as a wife and mother, but her crowning glory in the 
world's esteem is the fact that she was the bosom companion of the Father of 
his Country. Martha Dandridge was born in New Kent county, Virginia, in 
May, 1732, about three months later than her illustrious husband. In 1749, 
she married Daniel Parke Custis, of New Kent, one of the wealthiest planters 
of Eastern Virginia, and settled, with her h.usband, on the banks of the Pamun- 
key river, where she bore four children. Her husband died when she was about 
twenty-five years of age, leaving her with two surviving children and a large 
fortune in lands and monej^' She became acquainted with Colonel Washington, 
in 1758, when his greatness was fast unfoldino;; and on the 6th of January, 
1759, they were married. By the bequest of his half-brother, Lawrence Wash- 
ington, he owned the beautiful estate of Mount Vernon, on the Potomac, and 

1. He left her thirty thousand pounds sterling: (about $148,000> in certificates of deposits in the Bank of England. 
These were in an iron chest, in the possession of her only surviving: grranri-child, Geor^'e Washington Parke Custis, 
Esq., of Arlington House, Virginia until the beginning of thd late Civ il War 



120 JOSHUA BAP.NEY. 



there they made their home during the remainder of their hves. Occasional! j, 
during the War for Independence, Mrs. "Washington visited her husband in 
camp, and shared his honors, his anxieties, and his hopes. Ahiiost at the very 
hour of his great victory at Yorktown, her only son, who was Yv'ashington's aid, 
expired a few miles distant from the scene of carnage ; and with tho shout of 
triumph, that filled his mother's heart with joy, came a stern messenger with 
tidings that poured it fall of woe.^ 

While her husband was President of the United States, Mrs. Washington 
])resided with dignity over the executive mansion, both in New York and Phil- 
si lelphia; but the quiet of domestic life had more charms for her than the pomp 
of place, and she rejoiced greatly when both sat down again, at ^Mount Yernon, 
t-> enjoy the repose which declining age coveted. But that pleasant dream of 
life soon vanished, for her companion was taken away by death a little more 
than two years afterward. When she was certified of the departure of his spirit, 
she said, '"Tiswell; all is now over ; I shall soon follow him ; I have no more 
trials to pass through." In less than thirty months afcerward tho stricken widow 
Avas laid in the tomb, at the age of almost seventy-one years. In marble sar- 
cophigi their remains now lie together, at Mount Yernon — ^that Mecca of many 
pilgrims. 



JOSHUA BAKNEY. 

SEVERAL of the naval commanders who won glory for themselves and coun- 
try during the war with England in 1812-15, commenced their nautical 
career, and learned their earliest nautical lessons, durmg the War of the Eevo- 
lution. In that earlier naval school, Joshua Barney was educated for his pro- 
fession. He was born in the city of Baltimore, on tho 6th of July, 1759. He 
made several sea voyages while yet a lad, and at the beginning of tho War for 
Independence, he entered the sloop, Hornet, as master's mate, and accomi^anied 
the fleet of Commodore Hopkins to the West India seas, in 1775. Ho was at 
the capture of Now Providence, 2 and for his bravery there was promoted to a 
lieutenantcy. After being made prisoner and released three difierent times, he 
assisted in conquering a valuable prize, in the Autumn of 1779, which was taken 
into Philadelphia. The following year he married the daughter of alderman Bed- 
ford of that city, spent the honey-moon with his bride, and then repaired to Bal- 
timore to resume his naval duties. Ho was soon afterward made a prisoner, 
and sent to England, where ho escaped from a cruel confinement and returned 
to America. In 1782, he was placed in command of tho Ryder Ally, of sixteen 
guns, belonging to the State of Pennsylvania. In April, of that year, ho cap- 
tured the British ship, General Monk, after an action of twenty -six minutes. 
This vessel was bought by tho United States, and in September, it sailed for 
Prance, with Barney as commander, who bore dispatches for Dr. Franklin, at 
Paris. In that vessel he brought back tho French loan to the United States in 
chests of gold and barrels of silver. Peace eoon came, and ho left the service, 
for awhile. 

1. >Tr. Custis died at EKliam, abont thirty-Hvc miles froai Yorl:lown, from the efiects of camp fever. 
Washington hastened Ihivher as soon as publio affairs at camp woulJ allow him. Mrs. Was-hinglon and 
Dr. Craik were already there. The latfcr informed the chief, that his beloved step-son had just ex- 
pired, on his arrival. He wept like a child ; and when ho recovered himself, he said to the weeping 
mothar, " I adopt his two younger children as my ow.i, from this hour." These were tho present pro- 
prietor of Arlington Honse, and the late Eleanor Parke Cnstis, wife of Major Lawrence Lewis, the 
favorite nephew of Washington. 

2. One of the Bahama Islands. They took possession of the town now dalled Nassau, and made the 
governor i-risoner. He was afterward exchanged for Lord S;irling, who was made prisoner at the battle 
near SiocLlin, at the close of August, 1776. 



JOHN BARRY. 121 



In 1796, Captain Barney went to France, with Mr. Monroe, as the bearer of 
the American tiag to the National Convention. He there accepted an invitation 
to take command of a French squadron, but resigned his commission in 1800, 
and returned to America. Commodore Barney was among the most efficient 
commanders in service, when the United States declared war against England, 
in 1812 ; and the following year, he had charge of a flotilla in the Chesapeake 
Bay for tlie protection of the coast. "When the British invaded Maryland, and 
pressed forward toward Washington city, near the close of the Summer of 1814, 
Barney abandoned his flotilla, and with his marines, engaged in a battle with 
th3 enemy at Bladensburg, where he was wounded in the thigh by a musket ball, 
which was never extracted. In May, 1815, he was sent on a mission to Europe, 
and on his return in the ensuing Autumn, he retired to private life, after having 
been in service forty-one years, and fought twenty-six battles and one duel. He 
visited Kentuck}', in 1817, and started to emigrate thither the following year. 
When about to embark on the Ohio, at Pittsburg he was taken ill, and died 
there on the 1st of December, 1818, at the age of fiftj^-nine years. 



JOHN BARRY. 

" THHE first commodore in the American Navy," was not the brave John Barry, 
-I as is generally asserted. Yet ho was in active service as commander, 
about as early as Esek Hopkins, to whom that honor, conferred by Congress, 
properly belongs. Barry was a native of Wexford, in Ireland, where he was 
born in 1745. Ho Vfas educated for the sea, and at the ago of fifteen years he 
camo to America, and was employed as commander in the merchant service, 
until the Revolution commenced. When, in February, 1776, Commodore Hop- 
kins sailed with a small squadron against the fleet of Dunmore, then committing 
depredations on the Virginia coast, Barry left the Delaware, in tho Lexington^ of 
sixteen guns, to clear tho Virginia waters of tho numerous small cruisers of tho 
enemy which infested them. Ho performed that service well ; and prior to the 
promulgation of the Declaration of Independence, ho was promoted to tho frigate, 
Effingham. Circumstances prevented his departure in that vessel from the Del- 
aware, and at tho head of a volunteer company, under the command of General 
Cadwalader, ho assisted in some of tho operations which resulted in tho capture 
of tho Hessians at Trenton, near tho closo of 1776. He was with the army 
during tho succeeding Winter ; and when, the next Autumn, the British took 
possession of Philadelphia, ho went up the Delaware with the Effingham, and 
endeavored to save her, at tho same time indignantly refusing an offered bribe 
to employ her in the king's service. Ho greatly annoyed the British shipping 
in tho Delaware, by secret night enterprises in small boats. In September, 1778, 
his sphere of usefulness was enlarged by being appointed to tho command of tho 
Raleigh, of thirty -two guns, in which he sailed from Boston. He fell in with a 
British fleet, and after a severe action of many hours, ho was compelled to run 
his vessel ashore, upon a barren island. He had terribly handled his antagonists, 
and but for the treachery of one of his men, he would have burned the Raleigh, 
and deprived the enemy of all advantage. A court-martial honorably acquitted 
him of all blame. 

Early in 1781, Captain Barry took command of the frigate Alliance, and in 
that vessel he conveyed to L'Orient, Colonel John Laurens, a special ambassador 
to tlio court of France. In May he had an engagement with two English ves- 
sels, in which he was severely wounded. He was victorious, and his antag- 

6 



122 RICHARD GRIDLEY. 

onists became prizes. In the Autumn, Captain Barry conveyed La Fayette and 
Count Noailles to France, in the AUia7ice, and'tiien he cruised successfully among 
the West India islands, until March, 1T82, when he encountered a British 
squadron. His skill, coolness, and bravery, were eminently displaced in that 
engagement. He fought chiefly in defence of the American sloop-ol-war, Luzerne, 
which was conveying a large amount of specie. It was saved, and contributed 
to found the Bank of North America,' the first institution of the kind in the 
United States. After the close of tlie war. Captain Barry continued in the ser- 
vice, and he was efficient in protecting our commerce from the depredations of 
French vessels, when war between France and the United States commenced 
on the ocean, in 1797. Captain Barry died at Philadelphia, on the 13th of 
September, 1803, at the age of fifty-eight j^ears. 



RICHARD GRIDLEY. 

YERY few Americans directed their attention to military engineering, previous 
to the Revolution, and therefore those French engineers who proflered 
their services to the Continental Congress, were eagerly accepted and commis- 
sioned. At the opening of the war, near Boston, in 1775, Richard Gridley was 
the only efficient American engineer in the army. He was a native of Boston, 
where he was born in 1711. His brother, Jeremy, was the able attorney-general 
of Massachusetts, who defended the Writs of Assistance,'- and other government 
measures, against the patriotic attacks of James Otis, and his compatriots. We 
have no record of the early life of Richard. His fHst appearance before posterity 
was as an engineer in the provincial army, sent to capture the strong fortress 
of Louisburg, on Cape Breton, in 1745. After that event, he entered the reg- 
ular army, and in 1755, he was heutenaut-colonel of infantr3\ and chief engineer. 
He accompanied General Winslow, in that capacitj^, to Albany, in the Summer 
of 1756, preparatory to an expedition against Crown Point, on Lake Cbamplain. 
He proceeded to erect fortifications at the head of Lake George, The expedi- 
tion failed, through the tardiness of Lord Loudon. In 1758, Colonel Gridley 
served under General Amherst, and was with Wolfe, at Quebec. When the 
War for Independence began at Lexington and Concord, the patriotism and 
skill of Colonel Gridley caused his appointment of chief engineer of the army 
that soon gathered around Boston; and under his directions, all the fortifications 
erected during the Summer of 1775, and Winter cf 1776, in that vicinitj^, were 
constructed. Up to that time ho had received the half-pay of a British officer, 
and possessed Magdalen Island as a gift for his services under W^olfe. He was 
wounded in the battle on Breed's [''' Bunker's "] Hill, yet not so as to disable 
him. In September, 1775, Congress gave him tlie commission of a major- 
general, and made him commander-in-chief of the Continental artillery, to which 
office Colonel Henry Knox succeeded in November following. After the British 
loft Boston, in March, 1776. General Gridley was engaged in throwing up for- 
tifications at several points about the Harbor. He died at Stoughton, Massa- 
chusetts, on the 21st of June, 1796, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. 



1. See sketch of Robert Moiris. . , , ■^. ■, ^ 

2, (Joneral search-warrants, which allowed the officers of the km? to break open any citizen's store or 
dw3lling to search for contraband merchandise. It opened a way to many abnses, and the people 
violently opposed the measure. This was among the first of those government measures which drove 
the Americans into rebellion. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



US 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 

THE only material memorials of the author of the Declaration of Independence, 
in our country, are a dilapidated granite obelisk over his neglected grave 
at Monticello;' a bronze statue in front of the President's House at Washington 
city, erected by private munificence ; a fine statue upon a monument to Wash- 
ington, erected by the State of Virginia, at Richmond, and a few busts. The 
nation has quarried no stone for his monument, nor is it requisite. The Dec- 
laration OF Independence, written on parchment, and preserved in the mem- 
ory of generations, is a nobler monument than can be wrought from brass or 
marble. 

Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell, Albemarle county, Virginia, on the 
13tli of April, 1V43. He was of Welsh descent. When liis father died, his 
mother was left with Thomas and another son, and six little daughters. They 



1. It is within an enclosed family burial-prround, just in the edia-e of the forest which covers the western 
portion of Mor.ticello. Visitors, with Viindal hand, have so broken ofT pieces of the obelisk, to carry 
away with Ihem, that it now presents a sad appearance. To preserve ihe marble tablet, on which is the 
following inscription, written by Jefiferson himself, the present [1855J proprietor has removed it to his 
house : 

" H3re lies buried. Thomas Jkfferson, Aulho- of (he Declaration of American Independence; of 
the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom ; and Father of the University of Virginia." 



124 THOMAS JEFFEESON. 

were blessed with a handsome estate, and that portion of it called Monticello 
(little mountain), near the then hamlet of Charlottesville, fell to Thomas when 
he reached his majority. He was a student in William and Mary College, at 
Williamsburg, about two years, and then commenced the study of law with 
George Wythe, afterward Chancellor of Virginia. While yet a student, in 1165, 
he heard Patrick Henry's famous speech against the Stamp Act, and it lighted 
a flame of patriotism in young Jefferson's soul that burned brighter and brighter 
until the hour of fearless action arrived. In 17C7, ho commenced the practice 
of law; and in 17(39, he first appeared in public life as a member of the Virginia 
Assembly. lie was one of the most active workers in that body, until called to 
more influential duties as member of the Continental Congress, in 1775. He 
was always remarkable for his ready pen ; and as a member of the committee 
of correspondence, and by pamphlets and newspaper paragraphs, from 1773, 
until the culmination of public sentiment in the Declaration of Independence, he 
labored intensely and potentially.- When Richard Henry Lee's resolution in 
favor of independence was under consideration, early in the Summer of 1776, 
and a committee of five were appointed to prepare a preamble in the form of a 
Declaration, Mr. Jefferson, the youngest of the committee, was chosen to make 
the draft, chiefly because of his facile use of the pen in elegant and appropriate 
expressions of sentiment. At his lodgings, in the house of Mrs. Clymcr, in Phil- 
adelphia, that famous document was written, and after some modifications, it 
was adopted on the 4th of July, 1776. The author's name is appended to it, 
with fifty-five others. Soon afterward, Mr. Jefferson resigned his seat in Con- 
gress, and became a leading actor in the civil events of the Revolution in Vir 
ginia, from that time until the peace in 1783. Ho assisted in revising the la-^-* 
of Virginia; and in June, 1779, he was elected governor of the State, as suc- 
cessor of Patrick Henry. From about the beginning of that year, until the close 
of 1780, the British and German troops, captured at Saratoga, were quartered 
in his vicinity, and he greatly endeared himself to them by his uniform kindness. 
During his administration, Arnold, the traitor, invaded Virginia, and Cornwallis 
and his active officers overran portions of the State along the James river, from 
Richmond to its mouth. The fiery Tarleton attempted the capture of Governor 
Jefferson, in June, 1781, and almost succeeded.'^ It was a most trying time for 
Virginia, and Jefferson, sagaciously perceiving that a military man was needed 
in the executive office, declined a re-election, and was succeeded by General 
Nelson, of Yorktown. 

Mr. Jefferson now sought the retirement of private life, to indulge in the ge- 
nial pursuits of literature and science.^ He was not permitted to find happiness 
in repose there. His wife died, and his heart was terribly smitten. Then came 
a call from his countrymen to represent them abroad, and at the close of 1782, 
he departed for Philadelphia, to sail for France, to assist the American com- 
missioners in their negotiations for peace with England. Intelligence of the 
accomplishment of that duty reached him before his departure, and he returned 
homo. He was at Annapolis when Washington resigned his commission, in 
December, 1783, and the Address of President Mifflin to the chief was from Mr. 
Jefferson's pen. In 1784, he went to France, as associate diplomatist with 
Franklin and Adams, and the same year he wrote his essay on a money-unit, to 
which we are mainly indebted for our convenient coins. He succeeded Dr. 
Franklin as minister at the French court, in 1785 ; and on his return to America, 

1. His pamphlet entitled "A Suinmary View of the Rights of British America," was so much ad- 
miied, that Edmund Burke caused it to be reprinted in London, with a few alterations. 

2. Jefferson was advised of the approach of Tarleton. when he was within half a mile of his house, 
and escaped by fleeing to the dark recesses of Carter's Mountain, lying; southward of Monticello. Tarle- 
ton captured some members of the Virginia Legislature, then in session at Charlo'^esville. 

3. His Notes on Virginia is the most important of the various productions of hi* pen. 



THOMAS CHITTENDEN. 125 

in i'ZSD, before he reached his home at Monticello, he received from Washington 
the appointment of Secretary of State. He resigned that office in 1193, and be- 
came the head of the rei^ublican party, in opposition to Washington's adminis- 
tration. In the Autumn of 1796, he was chosen vice-president of the United 
States, and in the Spring of 1801, ho took his seat as chief magistrate of the 
nation. After eight years of faithful service in tliat exalted office, he retired 
forever, from pubUc hfe. Witli imtiring perseverance he succeeded in estabhsh- 
ing that yet flourishing institution, the University of Virginia ; and until tlie 
last, his life was spent in pursuits of public utility. The latter years cf his lile 
were clouded by pecuniary embarrassment. He sold his library to the Fedeial 
Government, in 1815, consisting of six thousand volumes, for twenty -four thousard 
dollars. He survived that great sacrifice eleven years, and then his spirit t( ok 
its flight, while his countrymen were celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the 
independence of the United States. lie died on the 4th of July, 1826, at the 
age of eighty-three years.' 



THOMAS CHITTENDEN. 

THERE are crises in the historj^ of States, sometimes occurring in their infancy, 
at other times in their maturity, when the concentration of influence in ono 
man has made him instrumental in conferring great benefits upon the public. 
Thomas Chittenden, the first governor of the independent State of Vermont, was 
an illustration of this fact. He was born at East Guillbrd, Connecticut, on the 
6th of January, 1729; received only the meagre rudin.ents of an English educa- 
tion, then furnished by the common schools, and married at the early age of 
twenty years. Then he made his residence at Salisbury ; and his natural abil- 
ities, combined with a pleasing person and address, soon made him popular. He 
Was chosen commander of a militia regiment, and for several years he represented 
liisdistrictin the legislature of Connecticut. Unlearned as he was, he became 
a isading man ; and by performing the duties of a justice of the peace for Litch- 
field county, fo^* several years, he became acquainted with the laws and the 
proper manner of administering them. Agriculture was his delight, and every 
day spared from his official duties was devoted to a personal engagement in the 
affairs of his farm. His family had a rapid growth, and he emigrated to the 
borders of the Onion river,'- in 1774, on what was known as the New Hamj)tliire 
Grants^ on the east side of Lake Champlain, for the purpose of laying the foun- 
dations of a fortune for his children. There, separated by an almost trackless 
wilderness from his early friends, he opened many fertile acres to the blessed 
sunlight, and invited settlers to come and form the nucleus of a State. Soon, 
political agitations disturbed his repose; and, in 1775, he Avas appointed one of 
a committee to visit the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and ask political 
advice. The threatening aspect of affairs in the North, toward the close of the 
Summer of 1776, caused the settlers to flee southward, and Mr. Chittenden took 
up his abode in Arlington, in the present Bennington county, where he was 
made president of the committee of safety. He warmly espoused the cause of 
the people of the New Hampshire Grants, in their controversy with New York.^ 



1. See sketch of John Adams. 

2. The Indian name of Uiis river was Ouinaoyke. His location was in the present town of Willistou, 
Vermont, south-east from Burlington. 

3. The State of New York claimed jurisdiction over the present territory of Vermont, then known as 
the New Hampshire (Jrants, and a very warm dispute arose. Bloodshed was often thvcatenc', but the 
matter was finally settled by a purchase cf the claims of New York for $30,000. 



126 PATRICK HENRY 



He was one of the committee who drafted a deciaration of the independence of 
Vermont,' adopted on the 15th of January, 1777. He also assisted in the for- 
mation of a State constitution, in July, 1777, and was elected the first governor 
under it. That office he held until his death, with the exception of one year. 
When, in 1780, the British authorities in Canada supposed the people of Ver- 
mont to be royally inclined (because they would not join the confederation of 
States), and appointed a commission to confer with the dissatisfied colonists, 
Governor Chittenden was chosen one of the committee on the part of the Ver- 
mont people. That whole matter was so adroitly managed by Chittenden, A lien, 
and others, for three years, that the authorities of both Canada and the United 
States were deceived. They thus secured Vermont from easy British invasion 
until peace was sure, when that State became a member of the great confederacy. 
The course of the Vermont leaders, though highly patriotic, was regarded with 
suspicion, until the mask was removed. At the close of the war, Governor 
Chittenden returned to Williston, with his fajiiily, where he passed the remain- 
der of his days. He resigned the office of governor in the Summer of 1797, and 
on the 25th of August, of that year, he died, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. 



PATRICK HENRY. 

"/^IVE me Liberty, or give me Death!" were the burning words which fell 
\J from the lips of Patrick Henry, at the beginning of the War for Independ- 
ence, and aroused the Continent to more vigorous and united action.2 He was 
the son of a Virginia planter in Hanover county, and was born on the 29th of 
May, 1736. At the age often years he was taken from school, and commenced 
the study of Latin in his father's house. He had some taste for mathematics, 
but a love of idleness, as manifested by his frequent hunting and fishing excur- 
sions, for sport, and utter aversion to mental labor, gave prophecies of a useless 
life. At twenty-one years of age, he engaged in trade, but neglect of business 
soon brought bank^uptC3^ Ho had married at eighteen, and passed most of his 
time in idleness at the tavern of his father-in-law, in Hanover, where he often 
served customers at the bar. As a last resort, he studied law diligently for six 
weeks, obtained a license to practice, but he was twenty-seven years of age be- 
fore he was known to himself or others, except as a lazy pettifogger. Then he 
was employed in the celebrated Parsons^ canse,^ and in the old Hanover court- 
house, with his father on tho bench as judge, and more than twenty of the most 
learned men in the colony before him, his genius as an orator and advocate 
beamed forth in that awful splendor, so eloquently described by Wirt. From 
that period he rose rapidly to the head of his profession. In 17G4, he made 
Louisa county his residence, and his fame was greatly heightened by a noble 
defence of the right of suffrage, which, as a lawyer, he made before the House 
of Burgesses, that year. In 1765, he was elected to' a seat in that house, and 
during that memorable session, he made his great speech against the Stamp 

1. Partly owing to the troubles wilh New Yovk, Vermont wonM not jom (he confederacy' in 1777, hjit, 
at a convention at Westminster, it was declared an independent State. It was admitted into the Lnion 
ia February, 1791. ^ , 

2. In the Virsrinia convention, held in St. John's chmch at Richmond, in March. 1^5. It was one ot 
the most powerful speeches ever made by the sreat orator, and ended wilh. the words quoted above. 
They were afterward placed on flags, and adopted as a motto under many circumstances. 

3. This was a contest between the clergv and the State lesrislature, on the question of an annual stipend 
claim3-l bv the former. A decision of the court had left nothina: undetermined but the amount ot 
damage. Henry's eloquence electrified judge, jury, and people. The jury brought in a verdict of on» 
penny damifjex, and the people took Henry upon their shoulders, and carried him in triumph about thft 
court-house yard. 



PATRICK HENRY. 



127 




2y^.^>7..^^ 



Act' In 1769, he was admitted to the bar of the general court, and was recop:- 
nized as a leader, in legal and political matters, until the Revolution broke out. 
He was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and gave the first 
impulse to its business;- and when, in 1775, Governor Dunmore attempted to rob 
the colony of gunpowder, \y having it conveyed on board a British war-vessel, 
Patrick Henry, at the head of resolute armed patriots, compelled him to pay its 
value in money. In 1776, Henry was elected the first republican governor of 
Virginia, and was reelected three successive years, when he was succeeded by 
Thomas Jeflferson. During the whole struggle, he was one of the most efficient 
pubhc officers of the State; and in 1784, he was again chosen governor. 

Patrick Henry was a consistent advocate of State Rights, and was ever jealous, 
of any infringement upon them. For that reason, he was opposed to the Fed- 

1. He had introduced a series of resolutions, highly tinctured with rebellious doctrines, and supported 
them with his wonderful clociucnce. The house was greatly excited ; and when, at length, he alluded 
to tyrants, and said, " Cissar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and Geo-gc Ihc Third—;' 
there was a cry of " Treason ! treason!" He paused a moment, and then said, "may profit by their 
example. If that be Treason, make the most of it." 

2. When all was doubt and hesitation at the opening of Ihe session, and no one seemed readj' to take the 
first step, a plain man, dressed in ministers' grey, arose and proposed potior. " Who is it? who is it ?" 
asked several members. "Patrick Henry," replied the soft voice of his colleague, Peyton Randolph. 



128 ETHAN ALLEN. 



eral Constitution, and in the Virginia convention, called in 1788, to consider it, 
he opposed its ratification with all the power of his great eloquence. He finally 
acquiesced, when it became the organic law of the Republic, and used all his 
e.Torts to give it a fair trial and make it successful. Washington nominated him 
for the office of Secretary of State, in 1795, but Mr. Henry declined it. In 1799, 
President Adams appointed him an envoy to France, with i llsworth and Mur- 
ray, but foeble health and advanced age compelled him to decline an office he 
would have been pleased to accept. A few weeks afterward, his disease became 
alarmingly active, and he expired at his seat, at Red Hill, in Charlotte county, 
on the 6tli of June, 1799, at the age of almost sixty-three years. Governor 
Henry was twice married. By his first wife he had six children, and nine by 
the second. His widow married the late Judge Winston, and died in Halifax 
county, Virginia, in February, 1831. 



ETHAN ALLEN. 

^rHE name of Green Mountain Boys is always associated with ideas of personal 
J. valor and unflinching patriotism ; and Ethan Allen has ever been regarded 
as the impersonation of the proverbial independence of character, of tlie early 
settlers along the eastern shores of Lake Champlain. He was born in Litchfield 
county, Connecticut, near the borders of New York, and at an early age emi- 
grated to the region above alluded to, known as the Neio Hampshire Grants^ 
now ^''ermont .At about the year 1770, a violent controversy arose between 
the settlers of this tract and the civil authorities of New York, respecting ter- 
ritorial claims. Ethan Allen took an aclive part in the controversy, and became 
a leader of the Greeyi Mountain Boys, as the settlers were called, against the 
alleged usurpations of the New York government.' The latter finally declared 
Allen and his associates to be outlaws, offered fifty pounds colonial currency for 
his apprehension,- and contemplated an armed invasion of the territor}^ Allen 
beheved himself in the right, and boldly maintained his position, until a common 
danger alarmed all the colonics, and made them unite as brethren for common 
defence. When the news of the aftair at Lexington reached those remote 
settlers, they were electrified with zeal for the maintenance of freedom ; and in 
loss than thirty days afterward, wo find Colonel Allen and some of his Green 
Mountain boys and Massachusetts militia, in concert with Colonel Benedict 
Arnold and some Connecticut men, wresting the strong fortresses of Ticonderoga 
and Crown Point from the British.^ Early in the following Autumn, Colonel 
Allen was sent to Canada, to ascertain the temper of the people there ; and in 
an attempt, with Colonel Brown, to capture Montreal, with a small force, he Avas 
made a prisoner, put in irons on board a vessel, and sent to England, with the 
assurance that he would be hanged. Great crowds flocked to see liim, on his 
arrival, for the fame of his exploits had reached England. His grotesque garb 
attracted great attention. He was regarded almost as a strange wild beast of 
the forest, and for more than a year he was kept a close prisoner. 

In January, 1776, Colonel Allen was sent, in a frigate, to Halifax, where he 

1. See Notes, p. 125. 

2. He came very near being: captured by a party of New Yorkers, while on a visit to his friends in 
Salisbury. They intended to seize him, antl convey him to Uie jai! at Poughkeepsic. 

?. When Allen thundered at the door of the commander of the garrison of Ticonderoga, after the 
folJiers were subdued, and that alfrigh'.ed otficiil asked by what authority he demanded a surrender, the 
colonel's reply was, "By the Great Jehovah and the C^onuuental Congress !" It was on the morning of 
the day when Cor.gress was to assemble at Philadelphia. 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 129 

remained in jail until the following October, when he was conveyed to New 
York, then the British head-quarters. There he was kept, part of the time on 
parole on Long Island, and part of the time in the Provost and otiier prisons in 
New York, until May, 1778, when he was exchanged for Colonel Campbell of 
the British army. His health had suffered much during his imprisonment, yet 
he repaired to head-quarters, and offered his services to Washington, when his 
strength should be restored. He arrived at Bennington, his place of residence, 
on the evening of the last day of May, and he was welcomed by booming can- 
nons and the liuzzas of the people. The civil authorities of the now independent 
State of Vermont commissioned him major-general of the State militia, but an 
opportunity for the exercise of his bravery and military skill did not again occur. 
He was active, witli G-overnor Chittenden and others, in the adroit political 
game played by Vermont with the authorities of the United States and of Can- 
ada ; and his patriotism ever burned pure, even at a time when General Clinton 
wrote to Lord George Germain, "There is every reason to suppose that Ethan 
Allen has quitted the rebel cause." General Allen continued active in public 
affairs after the war, until his death, which occurred suddeidy at Colchester, on 
the 13th of February, 1789, when he was about sixty years of ago. Colonel 
Allen was the author of several political pamphlets ; a theological work, entitled 
Oracles of Reasoa, and a Narrative of his Observations during his captivity.^ 



WILLIAM FRANKLIN. 

TT is worthy of note, that one of the most distinguislied Loyalists during the 
X War for Independence, was the only son of one of the noblest Patriots in 
that struggle. That Loyalist was William, the first-born child of Benjamin 
Franklin. He was born in Philadelphia, in 1731, and was carefully educated 
by his father, for professional life. He was postmaster of the city of Philadel- 
phia; clerk of the Assembly for awhile; and entered the pro\'incial army as 
captain, early in the French and Indian war. He was warmly commended for 
his services at Ticonderoga. After the war, he went to England with his father, 
and in Scotland he became acquainted with the Earl of Bute, who, for almost ten 
years, had great inflaence in the councils of George the Third. In 1763, William 
Franklin was appointed governor of Nev/ Jersej^, and was very popular for a 
time. Like all other royal governors, he soon assumed undue personal dignity, 
and quarrelled with the legislature. He was a thorough monarchist in principle^ 
and when the disputes between the colonists and the imperial government com- 
menced in earnest, he did not hesitate in taking sides with the crown, in opposi- 
tion to his distinguished father. At the beginning of 1774, all intercourse be- 
tween father and son was suspended, and as the political troubles thickened, tho 
breach widened. Mouth after month the breach between the governor and tho 
New Jersey Assembly also widened; and finally a Provincial Congress at Tren- 
ton assumed political authority, and royal government ceased in that province. 
A State Constitution was adopted in July, 1776, and WilliAm Livingston became 

1. The stern integrity and truthfulness of Colonel Allen were well illustrated on one occasion, when 
he was prosecuted for the payment of a note for sixty pounds, given to a man in Boston. It wns sent to 
Vermont for collection, but it was inconvenient for him to pnyit then, and he was sued. The trinlcamo 
on, and his lawyer, in order to postpone the matter, denied (he genuineness of the signature. To prove 
it, it would be necvissary to send to BdsIo-i for a witness. Allen was in a remote part of the court-room, 
when the lawyer denied the signature. With long strides Allen rushed through the crowd, and, stand- 
ing before his advocate, he said, in angry tone, " Mr , I did not hire you to come here and lie. That 

is a true note— I signed it— I Ml swear to it — and I Ml pay it. I want no shuffling — I want time. What 
I employed you for was to get this business put over to the ne.Kt court, not to come here and lie and 
juggle about it." The time was given, and Allen paid the note. 



130 JOSEPH GREEN. 



Franklin's successor, by the choice of the people. The Whigs went still further. 
Franklin was declared to be an enemy of his country, and was sent, a prisonei-, 
to East Windsor, Connecticut. He was kept under the eye of Governor Trum- 
bull, until 1778, when he was exchanged, released, and took refuge with the 
British army in New York. There he was secretly active in fomenting discon- 
tents among the people, wherever ho could make an impression. He was pres- 
ident of the Board of Loj^alists, who had their head-quarters near Oyster Bay, 
Long Island, but went to England before the close of the contest. In the picture 
< f the Reception of the American Loyalists by Great Britain, in 1783, painted by 
Benjamin West, Governor Franklin appears at the head of a group of figures. 
After an estrangement of ten years, ho soHcited and obtained a reconciliation 
with his father. Although Dr. Franklin accepted the olive branch thus filially 
held out, and proposed "mutually to forget" the past, he seems to have re- 
membered the estrangement, when he made his will, for, after making a com- 
paratively small bequest to William, he remarks, "The part he acted against mo 
in the late war, which is of public notoriety, will account for my leaving him 
no more of an estate he endeavored to deprive me of" Governor Franklin 
continued in England until his death, and enjoyed a pension, from the British 
government, of four thousand dollars a j-car. He died in November, 1813, at 
the age of about eighty -two years. His wife died of grief, while he was a pris- 
oner, in 1778, and a monumental tablet was erected to her memory in St. Paul's 
church, New York city. 



JOSEPH OREEN. 

IN the same year when Dr. Franklin first saw the light, a genuine wit and poet 
was bom in the same city of Boston. His name was Joseph Green. He 
was first instructed in the South Grammar School, and then entered Harvard 
College, where he was graduated in 1726. He became an accomphshed scholar, 
and man of business ; and by successful mercantile life, for a few years, he ac- 
quired a competent fortune. Generous, polite, elegant in deportment, and ex- 
ceedingly popular with all classes, Mr. Green might have acquired almost any 
mark of pubhc distinction, but he loved private life, and could never be prevailed 
upon to accept office. He took very little part in politics, yet when Hutchinson 
left the government of Massachusetts, ho w^as one of those who signed a com- 
plimentary address to that functionary. This act offended the republicans, and 
the royal party claimed him; but when, in 1774, Massachusetts was deprived 
of her charter, and a number of couneellors were appointed by mandamus, Green 
refused to serve, and sent his resignation to General Gage. Yet the tendencies 
of Mr. Green were so decidedly loyal, that he was included in the act of banish- 
ment, of 1778. He had been absent from Boston about three years already, and 
he never returned to his native country. He died in London, on the 11th of 
December, 1780, at the age of seventy-four years. Mr. Green's poetry was 
generally humorous. He wrote a burlesque on a psalm written by his fellow 
wit, Doctor Byles. Also a burlesque on the Free Masons, and a " Lamentation 
on Mr. Old Tenor" (paper money), which gained him great applause. He was 
a member of a club of sentimentalists, who published several pamphlets ; and he 
attacked the administration of Governor Belcher, exposed its anti-republican 
tendencies, and ridiculed the chief magistrate by putting his speeches into rhyme. 
Mr. Green was a Loyalist of the milder stamp, and was governed by a pure 
heart and clear head in his choice of government. 



JAMES JACKSON. 



131 




^^Zy 



JAMES JACKSON. 



WHEN the British army was about to leave Savannah, in July, 1*782, General 
Wayne, then in command in Georgia, chose an accomplished young man 
^f twenty-five, whose valor was the theme for praise in the Southern armj^, to 
receive the keys of the city from a committee of British officers. That young 
officer was Major James Jackson, a native of Devonshire, England, where he 
was born on the 21st of September, 1757. He came to America, with his father, 
in 1772, and studied law in Savannah. He loved his adopted country, and in 
1776, shouldered his musket, and was active in repelling an invading force that 
menaced Savannah. In 1778, he was appointed brigade major of the Georgia 
militia, and was wounded in a skirmish on the Ogeechee, in which General 
Scriven was killed. At the close of that year he participated in the unsuccess- 
ful defence of Savannah ; and when it fell into the hands of Colonel Campbell, 
he was among those who fled into South Carolina and joined Moultrie's brig- 
ade. His appearance was so wretched and suspicious, during that flight, that 
he was arrested by some Whigs, and tried and condemned as a spy. They were 
about to hang him, when a gentleman of reputation, from Georgia, recognized 
him, and saved his life. He was active in the siege of Savannah by Lincoln 
and D'Estaing, in October, 1779, and in 1780, he .ras in the battle at Black* 



ELI WHITNEY. 



stocks under Colonel Elijah Clarke, of Georgia. General Andrew Pickens made 
him his brigade major, in 1781, and his tiuent speech expressing his ardent 
patriotism, infased new zeal into that corps. He was at the siege of Augusta, 
in June, 1781, and when the Americans took possession, Jackson was left in 
command of the garrison. Subsequently he performed more active and arduous 
servic3S, as commander of a legionary corps; and at Ebenezer, on the Savannah, 
he joined General Wayne, and was the right arm of his force until the evacua- 
tion of the Georgia capital, in 1782. As some reward for his patriotic services 
daring the war, the legislature gave him a house and lot in Savannah. Ho 
married in 1785, and the next year was commissioned brigadier-general of the 
State militia. In 1788, he was elected governor of Georgia, but modestly de- 
clined the honor on account of his youth and inexperience, being then only little 
more than thirty years of age. He was one of the first representatives of Georgia 
in Congress, after the organization of the Federal Government; and from 1792 
to 1795, was a member of the United States Senate. In the meanwhile he was 
promoted to major-general, and never failed in the faithful performance of his 
duties, civil and mihtary. The State Constitution of Georgia, framed in 1798, 
-was chiefly the work of his brain and hand. From that year until 1801, he 
was governor of the State, when he was again chosen United States' senator. 
He held that office until his death, which occurred at Washington city, on the 
19th of March, 1808, at the age of forty-nine years. His mortal remains lie 
beneath a neat monument in the Congressional burial-ground, upon which is an 
inscription, written by his personal friend and admirer, John Randolph, of 
Roanoke. Governor Jackson made many powerful enemies in the South, be- 
cause of his successful exposures of stupendous land frauds, but his course in- 
creasoid tlie zeal and number of his friends. There never lived a truer patriot or 
more honest man, than General James Jackson. 



ELI WHITNEY. 

EVERY labor-saving machine is a gain to humanity; and ev^ry inventor of 
such machine is a public benefactor. High on the list of such worthies is 
the name of Eli Whitney, the inventor of a machine for cleaning cotton to pre- 
pare it for the bale, known by the technical term o^ gin. He was born at West- 
borough, Massachusetts, on the 8th of December, 1763. His mechanical genius 
was early manifested ; and while yet a mere child, he constructed many things 
with great skill. He entered Yale College in 1789, and was graduated in 1792. 
He then engaged to go to Georgia as a private tutor in a family, and on his way, 
he fell in with the widow of General Greene, who was returning to Savannah, 
with her family. On his arrival, he found himself without occupation and with 
very little money, for the person with wiiom he had made an engagement had 
hired another preceptor. Mrs, Greene had become much interested in young 
Whitney, and at once invited him to make her house his home, to pursue what 
studies he pleased. He commenced the study of law, but his mind was much 
on mechanics. Several distinguished visitors at the house of Mrs. Greene, from 
the interior, on one occasion, expressed their regret that there was not some 
machine for cleaning the green seed cotton,' as its culture, with such aid, would 

1. This labor was then performei chiefly by female servants. To separate one pound of clean staple 
cotton from the seeds was considered a good day's work for one person. 



ELIAS BOUDINOT. 133 



be very profitablo at the South. The great mechanical genius of young Whitney 
was known to Mrs. Greene, and she said, " Apply to my young tViend here, he 
can malve anything." Although he had never yet looked upon a cotton seed, 
his mind began to plan. Ho procured a small quantity of uncleaned cotton, and 
v/ith such rude tools cvA a plantation afforded, ho went to v/ork and constructed 
a machine, under the kind auspices of Mrs. Greene and Phineas Miller, who be- 
came her husband. The machine was examined with delight, for it would do 
the work of months in a single day. With it, one man could do the work of a 
thousand. It opened a way to immense wealth to tho Southern planters. Great 
exciteaiont prevailed ; and when the people found that they could not see the 
great invention until it was patented, they broke open the building in which it 
stood, carried it away, and soon many similar machines were in use. Whitney 
v.X'ut to his native State, patented his invention, and in partnership with Mr. 
Miller, commenced the manufacture of machines for Georgia. Before he could 
secure a patent, it was in common use;' and to complete his misfortunes, his 
shop with all its contents, and his papers, were consumed. He was made a 
bankrupt ; and the inventor of the cotton gin, which has been worth hundreds 
of millions of dollars to the people of the South, never received a sufficient amount 
of money from it, to reimburse his actual outlays and losses. He was treated 
with the utmost unfairness by some southern legislatures, as well as by indiv'd- 
uals ; and e\'ery\vhere among those who were profiting immensely by the in- 
vention, his rights were denied. Even Congress denied his application to extend 
his patent. Disappointed, and disgusted with the injustice of his fellow-men, 
Mr. Whitney turned his attention to other pursuits. He commenced the manu- 
facture of fire-arms, in 1798, for the United States. But misfortune seemed to 
be uniformly his lot in life, except in his choice of the excellent Henrietta, 
daughter of Pierpont Edwards, for his wife. After great sufferings from disease, 
he died near New Haven, on the 8th of January, 1825, at the ago of fifty-nine 
years. 



ELIAS BOUDINOT. 

THE American Bible Society, whose labors have accomplished a vast amount 
of good, in the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures, was established in 
1816; and Elias Boudinot, one of its founders, and a warm patriot of the Revo- 
lution, was its first president. He was born in Philadelphia, on the 2d of May, 
1740. He inherited a love of freedom and religious devotion fiom his Huguenot 
ancestors, and when the colonists began to question tlie right of Great Britain 
to tax them without their consent, he took a stand for his countrymen. He had 
received a classical education, studied law with Richard Stockton, one of the 
signers of the Declaration of Independence, and married that patriot's sister. 
Boudinot practiced his profession in New Jersey, and soon rose to distinction. 
In 1777, he was appointed commissary-general of prisoners, by Congress, and 
the same year ho was elected to a seat in the Continental Congress. In Noveni' 
ber, 1782, he was elected president of that body, and in that capacitj-' he signed 
thj preliminary treaty of peace with Great Britain. At the close of the war ho 
resumed the profession of the law, but was again called into public life in 1789, 

1. On one occasion, when suits for the infrinprement of the patent in Georgria were commenced, Mr. 
-Miller wrote, " The jurymen at Augusta have come to an understanding among themselves, that they 
will never give a cause in our favor, let the merits of the case be as they may." 



134 JOSEPH HABERSHAM. 

by an election to a seat in Congress, undej the Federal Constitution. He was 
a member of the House of Representatives six years, when Washington appointed 
him Director of the Mint, on the death of Rittenhouse. He held that position 
until 1805, vWien he retired from public life, and made his residence the re- 
mainder of his days, at Burlington, New Jersey. In 1812, he was elected a 
member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to which 
he made a donation of five thousand dollars; and when he was elected president 
of the American Bible Society, in 1816, he gave that institution ten thousand 
dollars. He was a trustee of the College at Princeton for many years, and there 
founded a cabinet of natural history, at a cost of three thousand dollars. H is 
whole life was one of usefulness ; and at his death, he bequeathed a great por- 
tion of a large fortune to institutions and trustees, for charitable purposes. The 
remainder of his estate he left to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church, of which he was a member. He died at Burlington, on the 24th of 
October, 1821, at the age of eighty-one years. 



JOSEPH HABERSHAM. 

GEORGIA may boast of many noble patriots, but she had none, in the "War 
for Independence, of truer stamp, than Joseph Habersham, the son of a 
merchant of Savannah, where he was born in 1750. He was one of the earliest 
advocates of popular rights in the Georgia capital, and, with other young men, 
acted, as well as spoke, against unjust royal rule. Early in the Summer of 1715, 
a letter from Sir James Wright, the royal governor of Georgia, to General Gage, 
was intercepted by the vigilant Whigs of Charleston, who had seized the mails. 
It contained a request for that officer to send some troops to Savannah, to sup- 
press the rising rebellion there. The letter was sent to the committee of safety 
at Savannah, and aroused the fiercest indignation of the Whigs. At about that 
time, a British vessel arrived at the mouth of the Savannah, with many thousand 
pounds of powder. It was determined to seize the vessel and secure the powder, 
for the use of the patriots. On the night of the 10th of July, thirty volunteers 
under young Habersham (then holding the commission of colonel) and Commo- 
dore Bowon, captured the vessel, placed the powder, under guard, in the mag- 
azine at Savannah, and sent five thousand pounds of the ammunition, to General 
Washington at Boston. In January. 177^), Colonel Habersham was a member 
of the Georgia Assembly; and on the 18th of that month, he led a party of 
volunteers, to the capture of Governor Wright. They paroled him a prisoner in 
his own house, from which, on a stormy night in February, he escaped, made 
his way to the British ship, Scarborough, and went to England. Thus Colonel 
Habersham put an end to royal rule, in Georgia. He was active in the council 
and field, during the whole war, and held the commission of lieutenant-colonel 
in the Continental army. In 1785, he was chosen a member of Congress, to 
represent the Savannah district; and in 1795, President Washington appointed 
him Postmaster-general of the United States. He resigned that office in the 
year 1800, and two years afterward, was made president of the Branch Bank of 
the United States, at Savannah. He filled that office with distinguished ability 
until a short time before his death, which occurred in November, 1815, at the 
age of sixty-five years. 



BENEDICT ARNOLD. 



135 




/yy.cy^^T^^i-^^^ 




BENEDICT ARNOT.D. 

" ll/'E accept the treason, but despise the traitor," was the practical expression 
T T of British sentiment when Arnold, one of the bravest of the American 
generals, was purchased with British gold, and attempted to betray the liberties 
of his country. He was a native of Norwich, Connecticut, where he was born 
on the 3d of January, 1740. He was a descendant of Benedict Arnold, one of 
the early governors of Rhode Island, and was blessed with a mother who, ac- 
cording to her epitaph, was " A pattern of patience, piety, and virtue." But ho 
was a wayward, disobedient, and unscrupulous boy; cruel in his tastes and 
wicked in his practices.' He was bred to the business of an apothecarj^, at 
Norwiah, under the brothers Lathrop, who were so pleased with him as a young 
man of genius, that they gave him two thousand dollars to commence business 
with. From 1763 to 1767, he combined the business of bookseller and druggist, 
in Ne\f Haven, when he commenced trading voyages to the West Indies, and 

1. While yet a mere youth, he attempted murder. A young: Frenchman was an accepted suitor of 
Avnoll's sister. The younff tyrant ffor Arnold was alwavs a despot amon? his play-fe'.Iows) disliked 
him, and when he could not persuade his sister to discard him, he declared he would shoot the French- 
™'^'} Y he ever entered the house agrain. The opportunity soon occurred, and Arnold discharged a 
^aded pistol at him, as he escaped through a window. The young man left the place forever, and 
•Hannah Arnold lived the life of a maiden. Arnold and the Frenchman afterward met at Honduras, and 
toaght a duel. The FrencVunan was severely wounded. 



136 BENEDICT ARXOLD. 



liorso dealing in Canada. Ho Tv*as in command of a yoluntocr company, in Xew 
Haven, when the war broke out, with Vv'hom he marched to Cambridge, and 
joined tlie army under Washington. Then commenced his career as the bravest 
of the brave. His first bold exploit had been in connection with Ethan Allen 
ill tlio capture of Ticonderoga, in May, 1775. In Sejjtember following he started 
f;om Cambridge for Quebec, by way of the Kcnnebeck and the wilderness be- 
yond its head waters, in command of an expedition ; and after an unsuccessful 
attempt to take the capital of Canada, ho joined Montgomery, and participated 
in the disastrous siege of that walled town on the last day of the 3-ear. There 
h3 was severely wounded in tho leg, but escaping up the St. Lawrence, held 
command of tho broken army until tho arrival of General Wooster in April fol- 
lowing. Arnold retired to Montreal, then to St. Johns, and left Canada alto- 
gether, in June, 1776. During tho Summer and Autumn of that year, he was 
active in naval command on Lake Champlaia. He assisted in repelling the in- 
vasion of Connecticut, by Try on, in April, 1777; and during the latter pa.t of 
that Summer, ho was with General Schuyler, in his preparations for opposing the 
attempt of Bargoyno tj penetrate beyond Fort Edward, or S^iratoga. 

While the American army was encamped at the mouth of the Mohawk, Arnold 
marched up that stream, and relieved the beleagurcd garrison of Fort Schuyler 
(or Stanwix), on the site of the present village of Kome.^ He was in the battles 
at Stillwater; and despite the jealous efforts of Gates to cripple his movements, 
his intrepidity and personal example Vvxro chiefly instrun:iental in securing the 
victory over Burgoyne, for which the commanding general received the thanks 
of Congress and a gold medal, while Arnold was not even mentioned in tho 
official despatches from Saratoga. This was ouo of tho first affronts that planted 
seeds of treason in his mind. Ho was again severely wounded at Saratoga, and 
sufiered much for many months When, in the Spring of 1778, the British 
evacuated Philadelphia, Arnold was appointed military governor there, because 
of his incapacity for active field service, on account of his wounds. There he 
lived extravagantl}', married the beautiful daughter of Edward Shippen, a lead- 
ing Tory of Philadelphia, and commenced a system of fraud, peculation, and 
oppression, which caused him to be tried for sundry offences by a court-martial, 
ordered by Congress. He was found guilty on some of tho charges, and deli- 
cately reprimanded hj Washington. Indignant and deeply in debt, he brooded 
upon revenge on one hand, and pecuniary relief on the other. He opened a 
correspondence' with the accomplished Major Andre, adjutant-general of the 
British army, and after procuring the command of the fortresses at West Point, 
on the Hudson, an I vicinity, he arranged, with Andre, a plan for betraying them 
into the hands of Sir Henry Clinton, tlio British commander at Now York. His 
price for his porfidy was fifty thousand dollars and a brigadier's commission in 
the British army. After a personal negotiation with Arnold, Andre was 
captured,- t'.ie treason became known, but tho traitor had fled to his new friends 
in i!^ew York. He soon afterward went on a marauding expedition into Yir- 
f';inia,^ a:id then on the New England coast, near his birth-place, everywhere 
exhibiting the most cruel spite toward the Americans whom he had sought to 
injure beyond measure. The war ended, and he went to England. There he 

1. While Brr;:o;.ne penetrated the State f: om the North, St. Leger, with Tories and Indians, attempted 
to take Fort Schuyler, and then sweep the Mohawk Valley. 

2. Andre was hanged as a spy, at Tappan, on tlie west side of the Hudson, in October, 1780. He had 
been drawn info that position by the villany of Arnold, and could the traitor have been caught, Andre 
would have been saved. 

3. In a skirmish between Richmond and Petersburg, some Americans were made prisoners. One of 
them was asked by Arnold, what his countrymen would do with him, if they should catch him. The 
young man promptly replied, " Bury the leg (hat was wounded at Quebec and Saratoga, with military 
honors, and hang the rest of you." Great efforts were inT^e to capture the traitor, while he was in 
Virginia. That was the chief object of La Fayette's expedition to that State. 



WILLIAM BARTON". 137 



was cverywlicro shunned as a serpent, and he made his abode in St. Johns, New 
Brunswick, from 1786 until 1793. Ho went to the West Indies, in 1794, and 
from thence to England. lie died in Gloucester Place, London, on the 14th of 
June, 1801, at the age of sixty-one years. Just three years afterward, his wife 
died at the same place, aged forty-three.^ 



WILLIAM BARTON. 

" Wlint hath the gray-haired prisoner done? 
H ith murder stained his hand with goie? 
All, ro ! liis Clime 's a fouler one — 
Gud made the old man poor /" 

''pHUS indignantly did the gifted pen of Whittier refer to the brave Colonel 
1 Barton, in his noble protest against imprisonment for debt. Barton was a 
worthy scion of old Rhode Island stock, and was born in Providence in 1750. 
Of his early life we know notliing, but when the War for Independence appealed 
to the patriotism and romance of the young men of America, we find him among 
the most daring of thosa who gave the British great annoyance after they had 
taken possession of Rhode Island, in 1776, and were encamped at Newport and 
vicinity. Young Barton had passed through the several grades of office, until 
the opening of 1777, when we lind him liolding the commission of lieutenant- 
colonel of militia, and performing good service in preparations for driving the 
British from Rhode Island. General Prescott, an ariogant, tyrannical man, was 
the commander-in-chief of the enemy there, and the people suffered much at his 
hands.'^ They devised various schemes to get rid of him, but all failed until a 
plan, conceived by Colonel Barton, was successfully carried out. Prcscott's 
head-quarters were at the house of a Quaker, five miles north of Newport. On 
a sultry night in July, 1777, Barton, with a few trusty followers, crossed Nar- 
raganset Bay from Warwick Point, in whale boats, directly through a Biitish 
fleet, and landed in a sheltered cove a short distance from Prcscott's quarters. 
They proceeded stealthily in two divisions, and secured the sentinel and the 
outside doors of the house. Then Barton boldly entered, with four strong men 
and a negro, and proceeded to Prcscott's room on the second floor. It was now 
about midnight. The door was locked on the inside. There was no time for 
parley. The negro, stepping back a few paces, used his head as a battering- 
ram, and the door flew open. Prescott, supposing the intruders to be robbers, 
sprang from his bed and seized his gold watch. The next moment Bai ton's 
hand was laid on his shoulder, and he was admonished that he was a prisoner, 
and must bo silent. Without giving him time to dress, he was conveyed to one 
of the whale-boats, and the whole party returned to Warwick Point, undis- 
covered by the sentinels of tlie fleet. Prcscott's mouth was kept shut by a pis- 
til at each ear. The prisoner first spoke after landing, and said, " Sir, you have 
made a bold push to-night." Barton coolly replied, "We have been fortunate." 
At sunrise the captive was in Providence, and in the course of a few days he 
was sent to the head-quarters of Washington, in New Jersey,^ For this brave 

1. Their son, James Robertson Arnold, bom at West Point, became a distinguished officer in the 
British army. He passed through all the grades of ofhce, from lieutenant. On (lie accession of Queen 
Victoria, he was made one of her aids-de-ramp, and rose to the rank of major-general, with the badge 
of a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian (Juelphic Order. 

2. This was the same Prescott who commanded at Montreal, in 1775, and treated Colonel Ethan Allen 
so cruelly when he was made prisoner. 

3. Prescott's haughty demeanor was not laid aside in his captivity. On his way to New Jersey, be 



138 GEORGE ROGERS CLARKE, 

service, Congress presented their thanks fnd an elegant sword, to h'eutenant- 
colonel Barton, and in December following, he was pi'omoted to the rank and 
pay of colonel in tlie Continental array. He was also rewarded by a grant of 
land, in Vermont. In the action at Butt's Hill, near Bristol Ferry, in August, 
1778, Colonel Barton was so badly wounded, that ho was disabled for the re- 
mainder of the war. In after years, the land in Vermont proved to be an un- 
fortunate gift. By the transfer of some of it iie became entangled in the meshes 
of the law, and was imprisoned for debt, in Vermont, for many years, in his old 
age. 

" For this be shares a felon's cell, 
The fittest earthly type of hell ! 
For this, the boon for which he poured 
His young blood on the invader's sword, 
And counted light the fearful cost — 
His blood-gained liberty is lost." 

"When La Fayette was "our nation's guest," in 1825, he heard of the situation 
of his old companion-in-arms, paid the debt and set him at liberty ! It was a 
signihcant rebuke, not only to the Shylock who demanded the "pound of flesh," 
but to the American people. Colonel Barton died at Providence, in 1831, at the 
age of eighty -four years. 



OKOROE ROGERS CLARKE. 

ONE of the most interesting episodes in the history of our country, is that 
which relates to the conquest of the region long known as the North- 
western Territory,^ from the motley masters of the soil — English, French, and 
Indians. The chief actor in those events, was George Rogers Clarke, a hardy 
Virginia borderer, whose youth was spent in those physical pursuits which give 
vigor to the frame and activity to the mind. He was born in Albemarle county, 
Virginia, on the 19th of November, 1752, and first appeared in history as an 
adventurer beyond the Alleghanies. in 1772. He had been engaged in the 
business of land-surveyor, for some time and that 3'ear he went down the Ohio, 
in a canoe, as fir as the mouth of the Great Kanawha, in company with Rev. 
David Jones, thea on his way to preach the gospel to the western tribes.2 He 
was captain of a company in Dunmore's army, which marched against the In- 
dians on the Ohio and its tributaries, in 1774.-* Ever since his trip in 1772, he 
ardently desired an opportunity to explore those deej) wildernesses in the great 
vallies; and in 1775, he accompanied some armed settlers to Kentucky, as their 
co'nmander. During that and the following year, he traversed a great extent 
of country south of the Ohio, studied the character of the Indians, and made 
himself master of many secrets which aided in his future success. He beheld a 
beautiful country, inviting immigration, but the pathway to it was made dan- 

and his escort dined at the tavern of Oaptain Alden, at Tiebanon, Conneclicut. The common di^h rf 
coru and beans was set before him. He supposed the act to be an intontional insult, and strewirg the 
suaotash on the floor, exclaimed. " Do you treat me with the food of hogs." ("Japtain Alden hated the 
tyrant, and for this act he horsewhipped him. After Prescott was exchanged for General Charles_ Lee, 
and was again in command on Rhode Island, he treated a gentleman, who called upon him on business, 
with much discourtesy. He said in excuse, " He looked so much like a cursed Connecticut man that 
horsewhipped me, that I could not endure his presence." 

1. It embraced the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. 

2. See sketch of David Jones. 

3. The Shawnees and other tribes had committed marv depreciations on the Virginia frontier for 
several years, and in 1774, Lord Dunmore, then governor of that province, led quite a large force against 
them. A severe battle was fought at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the great Kanawha ; and at Chil- 
I'icothe, Dunmore made a treaty of peace and friendship with them. 



GEORGE EOGERS CLARKE. 



189 




gerous by the enemies of the colonists, who salhed forth from the British ])Osts 
at Detroit, Kaskaskia, and Vincennes, with Indian ahies. Convinced of tlio 
necessity of possessing these posts, Clarke submitted the plan of an expedition 
ag-ainst them, to the Virginia legislature, and early in the Spring of 1778, he was 
at the Falls of the Ohio (now Louisville), with four companies of soldiers. There 
he was joined by Simon Kenton, another bold pioneer. He marched through 
the wilderness toward those important posts, and at the close of Summer all but 
Detroit were in his possession. 

Clarke was now promoted to colonel, and was instructed to pacify the western 
tribes, if possible, and bring them into friendly relations with the Americans. 
While thus engaged, he was informed of the re-capture of Vincennes. With his 
usual energy, and followed by less than two hundred men, he traversed the 
drowned lands of Illinois, through deep morasses and snow-floods, in February, 
.1779: and on the 19th of that month, appeared before Vincennes. To the 
astonished garrison, it seemed as if those lough Kentuckians riid dropped from 



140 DAVID JONES. 



tb3 clouds, for the whole country was inuadated. The fort was speedily sur- 
rendered, and commander Hamilton (governor of Detroit), and several others, 
were sent to Virginia as i3risoners. Colonel Clarke also captured a quantity of 
goods, under convoy from Detroit, valued at $50,000; and having sufficiently 
garrisoned Vincennes and the other posts, he proceeded to build Fort Jefferson, 
on the western Ijank of the Mississippi, below the Ohio. 

"When Arnold invaded Virginia, in 1781, Colonel Clarke joined the forces 
under the Baron Steuben, and performed signal service until the traitor had 
departed. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier, the same year, and went 
beyond the mountains again, hoping to organize an e:xpedition against Detroit. 
His scheme failed, and, for awhile, Clarke was in command of a post at the Falls 
of the Ohio. In the Autumn of 1782. he penetrated the Indian country between 
the Ohio and the Lakes, with a thousand men, and chastised the tribes severely 
for their marauding excursions into Kentucky, and awed them into comparatively 
peaceful relations. For these deeds, John Randolph afterward called Clarke the 
"American Hannibal, who, by the reduction of those military posts in the wil- 
derness, obtained tlie lakes for the northern boundary of our Union, at the peace 
in 1783." Clarke made Kentucky his future home; and during Washington's 
administration, when (icnet, the French minister, attempted to organize a force 
in the West, against the Spaniards, Clarke accepted fiom him the con mission of 
major-general in the armies of France. The project was abandoned, and the 
hero of the north-west never appeared in public life afterward. He died near 
Louisville, Kentucky, in February, 1818, at the age of sixty-six years. 



DAVID JONES. 

THE ministers of the "church militant " frequently performed double service ir. 
the righteous cause of truth, during the War for Independence, for they 
had both spiritual and temporal enemies to contend with. Among these, the 
Rev. David Jones was one of the most faithful soldiers in both kinds of warfare. 
He was born in New Castle county, Delaware, on the 12th of May, 1736, and, 
as his name imports, was of Welsh descent. He was educated for the gospel 
ministry under the Rev. Isaac Eaton, at Hopewell, New Jersey, and for many 
years was pastor of the Upper (Baptist) Freehold church. Impressed with a 
desire to carry the gospel to tlie heathen of the wilderness, he proceeded to visit 
the Indians in the Ohio and Ilhnois country, in 1772. On his way down the 
Ohio river, he was accompanied by the brave George Rogers Clarke, whose 
valor gave the region, afterward known as the North-western Territory, to the 
struggling colonists, toward the close of the Revolution. Mr. Jones' mission 
v.-as unsuccessful, and he returned to his charge at Freehold. Becauee of his 
zealous espousal of the republican cause, he became very obnoxious to the 
Tories, who were numerous in Monmouth county. Believing his life to be in 
danger, he left New Jersev, settled in Chester county, in Pennsylvania, and in 
the Spring of 1775, took charge of the Great Valley Baptist church. He soon 
afterward preached a sermon before Colonel Davie's regiment, on the occasion 
of a Continental Fast, which was published, and produced a salutary effect. It 
was entitled, Defensive War in a Jusf Cause, Sif^less. In 1776, Mr. Jones 
was appointed chaplain to Colonel St. Clair's regiment, and proceeded with it to 
the Northern Department. He was on duty at Ticonderoga, when the British 
approached, after the defeat of Arnold on the Lake below, and there preached a 
characteristic sermon to the soldiers, which was afterward pubhshed. He served 



i 



JOHN EAGAR HOWARD. 141 

through two campaigns under General Gates, and was chaplain to General 
Wayne's brigade in the Autumn of 1777. He was with that officer at the Paoli 
Massacre/ where he narrowly escaped death, but lived to make an address at 
the erection of a monument there, over the remains of his slaughtered comrades, 
forty years afterward. He was in the battles at Brandy wme and Germantown, 
suffered at Wlnte Marsh and Valley Forge, and contijiued with Wayne in all 
his varied duties from the battle at Monmouth in June, 1778, until the surrender 
of Cornwallis, at Yorklowu, in October, 1781. Such was his activity as a sol- 
dier, that General Howe offered a reward for him, while the British held pos- 
session of Philadelphia ; and on one occasion, a detachment of soldiers were sent 
to the Great Valley to capture him,- At the close of the war, he returned to 
his firm, and resumed his ministerial labors. 

Wiien General Wayne took command of the army in the Xorth-western Ter- 
ritory, in 1794, Mr. Jones was appointed his chaplain, and accompanied him to 
the field; and when, again, in 1812, a war between the United States and Great 
Britain commenced, the patriotic chaplain of the old conflict entered the army, 
and served under Generals Brown and Wilkinson, until the close of the contest. 
He was then seventy-six years of age. When peace came, he again put on the 
armor of the gospel, and continued his warfare with the enemy of souls until 
the last. His latest public act was the delivery of the dedicatory address on 
laying the corner-stone of the Paoli Monument, in 1817. On the 5th of Feb- 
ruary, 1820, this distinguished servant of God and of the Republic, died in peace, 
in the eighty -fourth year of his age, and was buried in the Great Valley church- 
yard, in sight of the pleasant little village of Valley Forge. 



JOHN EAGAR HOWARD. 

MARYLAND may boast of many lovely sons, but she cherishes the memory 
of none more warmly than that of John Eagar Howard. He was born in 
Baltimore county, on the 4th of June, 1752. He was a very young man when 
the War for Independence commenced, and entered eagerly into the plans of the 
republicans. He became a soldier in 1776, and commanded a company of militia 
in the service known as The Flying Camps, under General Hugli Mercer. In 
that capacity he served at White Plains, in the Autumn of that year; and when, 
in December. 1776, that corps was disbanded, he accepted the commission of 
major in one of the Continental battalions of his native State. Then commenced 
his useful military career. In the Spring of 1777, he joined the army under 
Washington, at Middlebrook, in New Jersey, but returned home in June, on 
account of the death of his father. He again joined the army, a few days after 
the battle on the Brandy wine, in September; distinguished himself for cool 
courage in the engagement at Germantown : and afterward wrote a graphic 
account of the whole affair. He was also at the battle on the plains of Mon- 
mouth the following year; and in June, 1779, he was commissioned a heuten- 
ant-colonel in the 5th Maryland regiment, " to take rank from the 1 1th day of 
May, 1778." In 1780, he went to the field of duty, in the South, when De Ivalb 

1. Near the Paoli Tavern, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. General Wavne was surprised a few 
nights after the battle on the Biandywine, by fJeneral Grey of the British (irmy, and a large number of 
his command were slain. That event is known in hisioi y as the Paoli Massacre. 

2. While reconnoitring alone one night, Chaplain Jores saw a dragoon dismount, and enter a house 
for refieshments. Mr. Jones boldly anproached. seized ihe horseman's pistols, and going into the house, 
claimed the owner as his prisoner. The unaimed diagoon was compelled to obey his caplor's orders, to 
mount and ride into the American camp. The event produced great merriment, and Wayne laughed 
immoderately at the idea of a British dragoon being captured by his chaplain. 



142 lUCHARD BLAND. 



marched thither with Maryland and Delaware troops, with the vain hope of 
aiding the besieged Lincoln, at Charleston. He served under Gates until after 
the disastrous battle near Camden, In August, and his corps formed a part of 
the Southern army, under General Greene, at the close of that year. In January 
following, he won unfading laurels by his skill and bravery at the Cowpens, 
under Morgan, and received a vote of thanks and a silver medal from Congress. 
At Guilford, a month afterward, he greatly distinguished himself when Greeno 
and Cornwallis contended for the mastery. There he was wounded, returned 
home, and did not engage in active military services afterward. When peace 
came, the intrepid soldier was conquered by the charms of Margaret, daughter 
of Chief Justice Chew, around whose house, at Germantown, he had battled 
manfully, and they were married. lie sought the pleasures of domestic life, but 
in the Autumn of 1788, he was drawn from his retirement, to fill the chair of 
chief magistrate of his native State. He held that office three years. In 1794, 
he declined the proffered commission of major-general of niiiilia, and the follow- 
ing year he also declined the office of Secretary of War, to which President 
Washington invited him. He was then a member of the Maryland Senate; and 
in 1796, he was chosen to a seat in the Senate of the United States, where ho 
served until 1803. Then he retired from public life forever; yet when, in 1814, 
the British made hostile demonstrations against Baltimore, the old veteran, un- 
mindful of the weight of threescore years, prepared to take the field. The battle 
at North Point rendered such a step unnecessary, and he sat down in the midst 
of an affectionate family, to enjoy thirteen years more of his earthly pilgrimage. 
His wife was taken from him, by death, early in 1827; and on the 12th of 
October, of that year, he followed her to the spirit land, at the age of seventy- 
five years. Honor, wealth, and tlie ardent love of friends, were his lot in life ; 
and few men ever went down to the grave more truly beloved and lamented, 
than John Eagar Howard. 



RICHARD BLAND. 

41M0NG the galaxy of patriots who composed the real strergth of the Virginia 
. House of Burgesses, in 1774, no one was more beloved and reverenced, 
than Richard Bland, who was born early in the last century. He was a mem- 
ber of the colonial legislature of Virginia many years, and a leader of the pop- 
ular branch, or House of Burgesses. Although a true republican, he was not 
prepared, at the moment, to stand by Patrick Henry in his denunciations of 
British tyranny, in 1765, yet he did not flinch, soon afterward, when duty de- 
manded bold action. He was one of the committee to prepare a remonstrance 
with parliament, in 1768 ; and in 1773, he was one of the first general committee 
of correspondence, proposed by Dabney Carr. He was chosen a delegate to tho 
first Continental Congress in 1774, but declined the appointment the following 
year, because, as he said, he was " an old man, almost deprived of sight." Francis 
Lightfoot Lee, who signed the Declaration of Independence the foUowing year, 
was appointed in his place ; and three years afterward, the aged patriot went to 
his final rest. Mr. Wirt speaks of him as "one of the most enhghtened men in 
the colony; a man of finished education, and of the most unbending habits of 
application. His perfect mastery of every fact connected with the settlement 
and progress of the colony, had given him the name of the Virginia Antiquary. 
He was a politician of the first class, a profound logician, and was also considered 
as the first writer in the colony." 



CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. 



lis 




CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. 

" llf ILLIONS for defence, but not one cent for tribute," were the noble words 
i*L uttered by Charles Cotesworth Pinckney when, as an ambassador to the 
French government, some unaccredited agents demanded a loan from the United 
States, as a prerequisite to a treaty which he had been sent to negotiate. That 
sentiment expressed the national standard of independent integrity, ever main- 
tained in our intercourse with foreign nations.' The author of it was born in 
Charleston, South Carolina, on the 25th of February, 1746. His father was 
chief justice of South Carolina, and held a high social position there. At the 
age of seven years Charles, with his brother Thomas, were taken to England by 
their father, to be educated. He was first at Westminster, then at Oxford, and 
when his collegiate course was completed, he studied law in the Temple. On 
his return to Charleston, in 1769, he commenced a successful professional career, 
and at the same time became an active participator in the popular movements 
against the imperial government. He had taken a part against the Stamp Act, 
in England, and he was a full-fledged patriot on his arrival home. When, in 
1775, Christopher Gadsden became colonel of a regiment raised by the Provin- 



1. Jackson's instruct ions to foreign ministers were, 
nothing that is wrong." 



' ALk nothing hut what is right, and submit to 



^44 BARON DE STEUBEN. 



cial Congress, Pinckney received the appointment of captain of one of it3 com- 
panies, and he went up into North Caroh"na, as far as Newbern, on recruiting 
service. He was active in the defence of his native city the following year, and 
remained in service until the fall of Charleston, in 1780. He accompanied Gen- 
eral Robert Howe in his unfortunate expedition to Florida, in 1778, and assisted 
in the repulse of Prevost, from Charleston, the following year.' When, early in 
1780, the British fleet, bearing General Chnton and au invading arm}^, appeared 
off Charleston, Pinckney, now holding the commission of colonel, was ap[-ointcd 
to the command of the garrison at Fort Moultrie, in the harbor. When the cify 
and its defences finally yielded to superior numbers, and were surrendered, 
Colonel Pinckney was made a prisoner. He suffered much from sickness and 
ill-treatment during a captivity of almost two years, and was not allowed to par- 
ticipate in the struggle in the field during that time. In February, 1782, lie 
was exchanged, and was soon afterward breveted brigadier-general. On tht 
return of peace he resumed the practice of his profession, and was a member 
of the coavention which framed the Federal Constitution, in 1787. He declined 
a proffered seat in Washington's Cabinet, but in 1796, he accepted the appoint- 
ment of minister to the French Republic, then controlled by a Director}'. "■^ It 
was while in the midst of personal peril there, that he uttered the noble senti- 
ment just quoted. When war with France seemed inevitable, in 1797, and 
Washington was chosen commander-in-chief, Pinckney was appointed the second 
major-general in the army.^ He retired from active life at about the year 1800, 
and for a quarter of a century lived in elegant ease, though taking much in- 
terest in the progress of public affairs. He found exquisite enjoyment in the 
bosom of his family and the companionship of books, until the latest hours of his 
long life. He died on the 16th of August, 1825, in the eightieth year of his age. 



MUCH of the success of the Continental army in its more skillful achievements, 
during the greater portion of the War for Independence, was due to the 
science and valor of several foreign officers engaged m its service ; and the names 
of La Fayette, Steuben, De Kalb, Pulaski, Koskiusczko, and Du Portail, will 
evf>r be held in grateful remembrance hy the American people. To Frederick 
William Augustus, Barou Von Steuben, the army was indebted for that sui)erior 
discipline displayed on the plains of Monmouth, and afterward. He had been 
an aid-de-camp of Frederick the Great of Prussia; and the Prince Margrave, of 
Baden, in whose seiwice he afterward engaged, gave him the commission of 
lieutenant-general, and decorated him witli the Order of Fidelity, as a special 
mark of favor. He received titles and emoluments from other monarchs, and 
splendid offers for the future, but he left them all, came to America to help a 
struggling j^oung people in their efforts to be free, and joined the Continental 
armj', as a volunteer, at Valley Forge. Congress appointed him inspector-gen- 
eral, with the rank and pay of major-general, in May, 1778, and his thorough 



1. General Prevost marched from Savannah, wilh a strong Biilish force, to attack Chaileston, in 
1779, and appeared before the cily. The rapid approach of General Lincoln caused him to retreat sud- 
denly by way of the numerous islands along the shore fiom Charleston to Savannab. 

2. The Directory was the executive power of the French eovernraent, after the Revolntion, and was 
established in 1795. It consisted of five persons elected for fonr years, and ruled in connection with two 
representative Chambers, called respectively The Council q/" Ancients, and The Council of Five Hundred. 

3. One cf hij aids, George Washington Parke Custis, of Arliii:^toii House, Virginia, died in 1358. 
He wao the i'athcr-in-la,/ of Kobcit U. Lee. 



JOHN" BROOKS. 145 

discipliuG prepared tho Americans for more efficient action in future. As a 
volunteer, he fought at Monmouth ; and his services throughout the war v/ero 
of the greatest benefit. He was active in Virginia from tlie invasion of Arnold, 
in January, 1781, until the capture of Cornwallis, in October following. At the 
siege of Yorktown, his skill and valor were particularly conspicuous, for ho 
fought bravely and well in the trenches there.' At the close of the war, he 
remained in America. The State of Xew Jersey gave him a small farm; tl-.at 
of Nov/ York presented him with sixteen thousand acres of wild land, in Oneida 
county; and the Federal government granted him a pension of twenty-Uvo 
hundred dollars a year. Ho took up his abode on his Now York domain, gave 
one-tenth of the v/hole to his aids (North and Walker) and servants, and par- 
colled the remainder among twenty or thirty tenants. lie built himself a log 
hut on the site of the present Steubenville, New York ; and there the once 
courted companion of kings and nobles — the ornament of gay courts — lived in 
chosen obscurity, during the Summer months. His Winters were spent in tho 
best society ni the city of New York. Ho died suddenly of apoplexy, at his 
log-built residence, on the 28th of November, 1795, at the age of sixry -four years. 
His neighbors buried him in his garden; but afterward, according to his written 
request, he was wrapped in his military cloak, placed in a plain coffin, and buried 
in the woods near by. When a public road passed over the spot, his remains 
were taken up and buried a third time, in the town of Steuben, a fev/ miles 
from Trenton Falls. There a plain monument, erected in 1826, covers his 
grave.2 



JOHN BROOKS. 

FROM many a district school-house in our favored land have issued youths 
of humble origin, who, by their virtues and attainments, have adorned 
society, and honored their country. John Brooks, one of the most eminent chief 
magistrates of Massachusetts, was a graduate of one of those " colleges for the 
people," and his boyhood and early youth were spent in the obscure labors of a 
farm. He was born at Medford, in 1752. At the age of fourteen years ho was 
apprenticed to Dr. Simon Tufts, and his fellow-student in medicine was Benjamin 
Thompson, afterward the celebrated Count llumford. He always evinced a 
fondness for mihtary exercises, and organized the village boys into train-bands, 
with himself as commander. He commenced the i)ractice of medicine at Read- 
ing, and then, in 1774, he took command of a company of minute-men. With 
these, he assisted in annoying the British forces in their retreat from Concord, 
on the 19th of April, 1775, and soon afterward he was commissioned a major i.i 
the army that gathered around Boston. He assisted Prescott in throwing u]» 
the redoubt on Breed's Hill, but was absent on duty during the battle the next 
day. He remained with the Continental army at Boston until the following 
year, and then participated in the battles on Long Island and at White Plains. 
He was with Arnold in his expedition against St. Leger, at Fort Schuyler, on 
the Mohawk, in 1777, and bore the commission of lieutenant-colonel. At the 

1. On one occasion, when a, bomb-sliell was about fo burst, the Baron leapt into a ditch, followed by 
Wayne, who fell on him. " Ah, my dear fellow," said the Baron, " I know you are always good at 
covering a retreat." 

2. General William North, one of b\s aids, erected a mural monument to the memory of Steubtn, in a German 
church in Nassau Street, New York. It was atterwariis in the church edifice of that cungref!;aiion, in Forsyth 
Street. General Nor'h was United Stites senator, and was twice Speaker of the New York Assembly. He passed 
the latter vtars of his life in New Loudon, Connecticut, but died in the city of New York, on the 4th of January, 
1S36, at the ugti of eighty-three years. 

10 



146 CHAHLES CARROLL. 

battles at Saratoga, in September and October following, he performed sigTiai 
services at the head of a regiment, and h8 is a conspicuous person io Truuibuil's 
picture of the Surrender of Burgoyne. At the battle of Monmouth he was acting 
adjutant-general; and during the whole war he was a most valuable officer, 
especially while assistant inspector, under Baron Steuben. Washington always 
had the greatest confidence in his integrity and patriotism ; and in the crisis at 
Newburgh, in the Spring of 1783, when sedition and mutiny appeared rife, the 
commander-in-chief made Brooks his special confidant.' 

At the close of the war. Colonel Brooks, poor in purse but rich in character, 
resumed the practice of his profession, at the same time he held the office of 
major-general of militia. He was a zealous friend of the Federal Constitution, 
and received local offices under it, from the hands of Washington. When war 
with England was declared in 1812, General Brooks was appointed adjutant- 
general of Massachusetts, by Governor Strong; and in 1816, he succeeded that 
gentleman as chief magistrate of his native State. For seven consecutive years 
he performed the duties of governor with dignity and fidelity ; but declined a 
reelection in 1823, and retired to private life. He continued to evince much 
interest in societies to which he belonged, especially that of the Massachusetts 
Medical Society, of which he was president. Admiring his abilities as a states- 
man, the faculty of Harvard University conferred upon him the honorary degree 
of Doctor of Laws. Governor Brooks died on the 1st of March, 1825, at the age 
of about seventy-three years. 



CHARLES CARROLL. 

THE last survivor of the glorious company of those who signed the Declaration 
of Independence, was Charles Carroll, who, to enable the British ministers 
to identify him as an arch-rebel, and not mistake his cousin of the same name, 
added "of Carrollton" to his signature on that great instrument. He was of 
L'ish descent,^ and was born at Annapolis, in Maryland, on the 20th of Septem- 
ber, 1737. His father was a Roman Catholic gentleman of lar^e fortune, and 
sent Charles to the Jesuits' College at St. Omer, in France, when he was 
eight years of age. There he remained six years, when -he was transferred to 
another seminary of learning at Rheims. He was graduated at the College of 
Louis the Grande at the age of seventeen years. He then commenced the .study 
of law at Bourges, remained there a year, then went to Paris and studied until 
1757, and finally completed his professional education in London. After an 
absence of twenty-two years, he returned to Marj'^land, in 17G5, a finished scholar 
and well-bred gentleman. He found his countrymen in a state of high excite- 
ment on account of the Stamp Act, and at once espoi,sed the popular cause with 
great zeal. He held a fluent and powerful pen; and as early as 1771, Mr. Car- 
roll was known throughout the colonies as an able advocate of popular liberty. 



1. The remnant of Ihe Continental array, stationed nt Newburgh in 1783. became much disconterfed 
by the prospect of being soon disbanded withoul being paid the amount of anears due, or any piovision 
for the future being made for them. An anonymous writer (afterward acknowledged to be Major 
Armstrong), called a meeting of ihe officers to adopt measures to compel Congress to make a satisfactory 
arrangement, or else to take redress in their own hands. Washington took immediate steps to prevent 
the convention, and called a meeting, himself, rvf ihe officers. It resulted in a noble exhibition of patriot- 
ism on the part of the great body, and the aimy was saved the disgrace of a mutiny, after so much 
Buffering in the {rlorious cause. 

2. His grandfather, Daniel Carroll, was a native of Litfemourna, in Ireland. He was a clerk In the 
office of Lm-d Powis. and under the patronaire of the third Lord Baltimore, principal proprietor ef Mary- 
laivl. Yf^ om-'c-a'p'l to Hint colonv in the tV i < f T; r;',?s Tl 



CHARLES CARROLL 



147 




In 1772, he engaged in an anonymous newspaper discussion with the secretary 
of the colony, in which he oppose.] tlio assumed right of the British government 
to tax the colonies without tlieir consent. The unknown writer was thanked 
by the Legislature, tlu'ough the public prints, for his noble defence of popular 
riglits. When the author became known, he was at once regarded as the favorite 
of the people. 

Mr. Carroll early perceived, and fearlessly expressed the necessity of a resort 
to arms, and he was among the most zealous advocates for the political iude- 
peudence of the colonies, even before that question assumed a tangible tbrm in 
the public mind. He was chosen a member of the first committee of safety, at 
Annapolis, and in 1775, took his seat in the Proviucial Congress. The Mary- 
land convention had steadily opposed the sentiment of independence which was 
taking hold of the public mind, and that fact accounts for the delay in sending 
Mr. Carroll to the Continental Confess. He visited Philadelphia early in 1776, 
and C:)ngress apnointed him one of a committee, with Dr. Franklin and Samuel 
Chase, to visit Canada on a political mission. i Soon after his return, the views 
of the Maryland convention having chansred, he was elected to a seat in the 
Continental Congress, too late to vote for independence, on the 4th of July, but 

1. See sketch of Archbibhop CaiioU. 



148 , EBENEZER STEVENS. 



\n time to affix his signature to the instrument on the 2d of August.' Ten days 
riterward he was appointed a member of 'the Board of War, and held that posi- 
tion during the remainder of his service in Congress. He assisted in framing a 
constitution for his native State, in 1776, and in 1778, he left the national coun- 
cil to take a more active part in the public affairs of Maryland. He was a mem- 
ber of the Maryland Senate, in 1781, and in 1788, he was elected one of the first 
senators from that State in the Federal Congress. There he remained two years 
when he again took his seat in his State Senate, and retained it for ten conseo 
utive years. He then retired from public life, at the age of sixty-four years, and 
in the quiet seclusion of a happy home he watched with interest the progress of 
his beloved country for more than thirty years longer. When Adams and 
Jefferson died, in 1826, Mr. Carroll was left alone on earth, in the relation which 
he bore to his fifty-five colleagues who signed the Declaration of Independence. 
He lived on, six years longer, an object of the highest veneration; and finally, 
on the 14th of November, 1832, his spirit passed peacefully and calmly frop^ "^rth, 
when he was in the ninety-sixth year of his age. 



EBENEZER STEVENS. 

MANY of the meritorious officers of the artillery service in the War for Inde- 
pendence have not found that prominence in history whicli they deserve. 
Among those thus overlooked was General Stevens, who, from tlie earliest until 
the latest period of the contest, was one of the most efficient and patriotic sol- 
diers of the time. He was born in Boston, in 1752, and at an early age became 
thoroughly imbued with the principles of the Sun-'^ of Liberty:- He was one of 
those who "made Boston Harbor a tea-pot,"'^ in December, 1773, when fearing 
unpleasant consequences, he withdrew to Rhode Island. He went with the 
Rhode Island Army of Observation to Roxbury, under General Greene, in 1775, 
and his skill in the artillery and engineering department was such, that early in 
December of that year, Washington directed him to raise two companies of ar- 
tillery in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and proceed to join Montgomery in 
his attack on Quebec. The commission was speedily executed by the young 
soldier, and after great fatigue in dragging cannons through snow and over rougli 
hills, the little expedition reached Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence, and heard 
of the disastrous blow given to the Americans, at Quebec. Ste\'ens returned to St. 
John's on the Sorel, and rendered efficient service in the Noithern Department 
during 1776. He was in command of the artillery at Ticonderoga, in 1777, and' 
shared in the mortifications of St. Clair's retreat before Burgoyne, in July. He 
joined General Schuyler at Fort Edward, and was so distinguished as the com- 
mander of the artillery in the battles which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne, 
that Trumbull, in his picture of that scene, introduced Captain Stevens in a con- 

1. Mr. Carroll was elected on the 41h of .Tnlv, and took his Peat on the IFlh of the panne moilh. Fc 
affixe I his signature to the Declaration, with most of the others, a little more than a foitnight {.fteiward. 
See ske'ch of John Carroll. „ , r j 

2. During the excitement incident to the Stamp Act, the patriotic opposers of the measure tormert 
associations for the purpose in the difFcent colories, and styled ihemse\ye» Sotifs of Lileiti/. In like 
manner a large association of ladies was formed in Boston, who pledged themselves rot to use tea, while 
an oh-ioxious duty was upon it, and called themselves Dmightprs of Lihprty. A full account of these 
associntions will he found in Lossing's Pfctorw? F?eW £ooA-o/'^7(f if«-o?!(^"an. t ,• r. 

3. The people of Boston and other seaports resolved that cargoes of tea, which the East India Com- 
pany had sent to consignees in America, should rot be landed so long as an impost duty wa^ levied on 
the article. An attempt to land two cargoes in Boston caused a large company, some of Ihem in Uic 
disguise of Mohawk Indians, to go on board of the vessels on a moonlight night, in December, 1/ <3, and 
break open and cast into the waters of <he harbor, all the chests of the obaoxioui article. 



ISAIAH THOMAS. 149 



STjicuous position. He continued in command of the artillery, at Albany, until 
tiie Autunni of 17*78, when he became attached to Colonel Lamb's regiment, in 
the New York line. He was made lieutenant-colonel, by brevet, in April, 1778. 
For the contemplated invasion of Canada, La Fayette selected him as the chief 
of his artillery ; and early in 1781, he accompanied the Marquis into Virginia, 
to oppose Arnold. General Knox, the commander-in-chief of the artillery, had 
the highest coniidence in his excellence, and invested him with full powers, in 
the Autumn of 1781, to collect and forward artillery munitions for the siege of 
Yorktown. In the decisive actions which resulted in the capture' of Corn wallis 
and his army. Colonel Stevens was eminently efficient ; and in Trumbull's pic- 
ture of that event, he is seen mounted, at the head of his regiment. From that 
time until the close of the war, he was with Colonel Lamb at West Point and 
vicinity ; and when peace came, he commenced mercantile life in the city of 
New York. He accepted office in the military corps of his adopted State, and 
rose to the rank of major-general, commanding the division of artillery of the 
State of New York. In 1800, he superintended the construction of the fortifi- 
cations on Governor's Island, in the harbor of New York. He held the office 
of major-general of artillery when another war with England occurred, in 1812, 
and he was called into the service of the United States, in defence of the city 
of his adoption. He was senior major-general until the return of peace, in 1815. 
For many years he was among the most distinguished merchants of the com- 
mercial metropolis, and died at the green old age of about seventy-one years, on 
the 2d of September, 1823. 



ISAIAH THOMAS. 

PRINTING, "the art preservative of all arts," has been represented, at all 
times in its history, by men eminent for their intellectual greatness and 
extensive social and political influence. Philosophers, statesmen, and theolo- 
gians, of the highest order of genius, have been fellows of tl.>e craft. Eminent 
among the best was Isaiah Thomas, the historian of the art. He was born in 
Boston, in 1749, and at six years of age, being the son of a poor widow, he was 
placed in charge of Zechariah Fowle, a ballad and pamphlet printer, to learn the 
great art. After an apprenticeship of eleven years, he went to Nova Scotia, 
where he worked for a Dutch printer, awhile. There, as well as in the other 
colonies, the Stamp Act was just beginning to create much opposition to the 
imperial government, and young Thomas, who had been nurtured in the Boston 
school of politics, took a prominent part against the measure. He was threat- 
ened with arrest, but the repeal of the act lulled the storm, and in 1767, he 
returned to New England. He afterward went to Wilmington, North Carolina, 
and also to Charleston, in search of employment, but without success. Disap- 
pointed and poor he returned to Boston, in "1770, and formed a business partner- 
ship with his old master. It continued only three months, when Thomas pur- 
chased the printing establishment of Fowle, on credit, worked industriously and 
well, and in March following he issued the first number of " The Massachusetts 
Sjyy ;^ a weekly political and commercial Paper; open to all Parties, but influ- 
enced by None." It gave the ministerial party a great deal cf uneasiness, and 
vain efforts were made to control or destroy it.^ When the British held martial 

1. Fowle & Thomas had issued a tri-weeklv paper with this name the previous year, but it did not 
continue long. The new weekly paper was printed on a larger sheet than any yet published in Boston. 

2. An article against the government, which appeared in the Spy toward the close of 1771, caused 
Governor Hutchinson to order Thomas before the council, to answer. The bold printer refused ccm- 



150 RUFUS KING. 



rule in Boston, in 1775, Thomas took his estabhshment to Worcester, and four- 
teen days after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, he conunenced the 
pubUcation of the Sj)!/, there. He continued in Worcester after the war, and 
was blessed with prosperity. He formed a partnership, in 1788, and opened a 
printing-house and book-store in Boston, under tlie firm of Thomas and Andrews. 
They planted similar establishments in other places, to the number of eight ; 
and in 1791, they published a fine folio edition of the Bible. By industry and 
economy, Thomas amassed a handsome fortune, and was an honored citizen of 
his adopted town. He was one of the principal founders of the Antiquarian 
Society at Worcester, and was its president and chief patron. In 1810, ho 
printed and published his History of Printing in America^ in two octavo volumes, 
which has ever been a standard work on the subject. He lived more than 
twenty years afterward, the Patriarch of the Press. His death occurred at 
Worcester on the 4th of April, 1831, when he was eighty-two years of age. 



RUFUS KING. 

ALMOST every young man of talent, at the commencement of the War for 
Independence, engaged in the public service, civil or military, and often- 
times in both. Young men of every profession and from every class became 
goldiers, as volunteers or levies, or took part in the public councils. These 
were schools of the highest practical importance to those who were to be par- 
ticipants in the founding of the new republican confederation. Among the 
worthiest and most active oi ^hese, was Rufus King, son of an eminent merchant 
of Scarborough, Maine. He was born in the year 1755, and received a good pre- 
paratory education under Samuel Moody, of Byfield. He entered Harvard College, 
in 1773, and remained there until the students were dispersed when the American 
army gathered around Boston. Young King resumed classical studies with his 
old teacher in the Autumn of 1775. He returned to college in 1777, and was 
graduated with great reputation as a classical scholar and expert orator. He 
studied law imder Judge Parsons, at ISTewburyport. after having served as aid 
to General Glover, for a short time, in Sullivan's expedition against the British 
on Rhode Island, in the Summer of 1778. In 1780, he was admitted to the 
bar, and his first effort, as a pleader, w\as as adverse counsel to his eminent law- 
tutor. It was an effort of great power, and opened at once the high road to 
proud distinction in his profession. The people appreciated his talent ; and in 

1784. he was elected to a seat in the legislature of Massachusetts. He was 
chosen a representative of Massachusetts, in Congress, the same year ; and in 

1785, he introduced a resolution, in that body, to prohibit slavery in the terri- 
tories north-west of the Ohio river. In 1787, he was chosen a delegate to the 
Federal Convention, and there he was one of the most efficient and zealous 
friends of the constitution framed by that body. In the Massachusetts conven- 
tion called to consider that instrument, he nobly advocated its high claims to 
support. He soon afterward made New York city his residence, for there he 
had married Miss Alsop, daughter of one of the delegates in the first Continental 
Congress; and there was a wider field for his extraordinary mental powers. 
He was chosen a member of the State Legislature, in 1789, and in the Summer 

pliance ; and the attorney-general tried, but in vair., to have him indicted by the ^rand jury. Such 
resistance was made to these measures, that the government at length deemed it prudent to cease efforts 
to suence his seditious voice. 



RUFUg KING. 



151 




of that year, he and General Schuyler were elected the first senators in Congress, 
from New York. On the promulgation of the treaty made by Jay, with the 
British government, in 1*794, there was much excitement, and King and Hamil- 
ton warmly defended it, in a series of papers signed Camillus, all of which, ex- 
cept the first ten, were written by the former. In the United States Senate, he 
was one of the most brilliant of its orators, and his influence was everywhere 
potential. 

In the Spring of 1796, President Washington appointed Mr. King minister 
plenipotentiary to Great Britain, where he continued to represent his country 
with great dignity and ability during the whole of ]\fr. Adams' administration, 
and the first two years of Mr. Jefferson's. During his sojourn in Loudon, ho 
successfully adjusted many difficulties between his own government and that of 
Great Britain, and he possessed the warmest personal esteem of the first men in 
Europe. After his return home, in 1803, he retired to his farm, on Long Island, 
and remained in comparative repose until aroused to action by the events im- 
mediately preceding the war declared in 1812. While at the court of Great 
Britain, he had made unwearied efforts to induce that government to abandon 
its unjust and offensive system of impressing seamen into the naval ser^nce, and 
ho took an active part in public affairs during the first year of the war. xle v/as 



152 ^ HENRY. LEE. 



elected to the United States Senate, for six years, in 1813, and in 1820, he was 
reelected for the same length of time. Hoping to be useful to his country in the 
adjustment of some foreign relations, Mr. King accepted the appointment of 
minister to Great Britain, from Mr. Adams, in 1825, and took up his residence 
in London. Severe illness during the voyage disabled him for active duties, and 
after being absent about a year, he returned home. His health gradually failed, 
and on the 29th of April, 1827, he died at his seat, near Jamaica, Long Island, 
at the age of seventy-two years. 



HENRY LEE. 



THE right arm. of the Southern army, under General Greene, was the legion 
of lieutenant-colonel Henry Lee, and its commander was one of the most 
useful officers throughout the war. He was born in Virginia, on the 29th of 
January, 1756. His early education was intrusted to a private tutor under his 
father s roof, and his collegiate studies were at Princeton, under the guidance 
of the patriotic Dr. Witherspoon. There he was graduated in 1774; and two 
3'ears afterward, when only twenty years of age, he was appointed, on the nom- 
ination of Patrick Henry, to the command of one of the six companies of cavalry 
raised by his native State for the Continental service. These were at first under 
the general command of the accomplished Colonel Theodoric Bland.' In 1777, 
Lee's corps was placed under the immediate command of Washington, and it 
soon acquired a high character for disciphne and braver3\ Its leader was pro- 
moted to major, with the command of a separate corps of cavalry; and with 
this legion he performed many daring exploits. In Jul}', 1779, he captured a 
British fort, at Paulus's Hook (now Jersey City), for which Congress gave him 
thanks and a gold medal. He was at Tappan when Andre was tried and con- 
demned, in the Autumn of 1780; and from his corps Washington selected the 
brave Sergeant Champe to attempt the seizure of Arnold, in Xew York, so as 
to punish the really guilty, and let the involuntary spy go free.2 

Lee was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, in November, 1780, and early in 1781, 
he joined the army under Greene, in the Carolinas. In connection with Marion, 
and other Southern partisans, he performed efficient service for many months, in 
the region of the Santee and its tributaries. He was active in Greene's famous 
retreat before Cornwallis, from the Yadkin to the Virginia shores of the Pan, 
and in the battles at Guilford, Augusta, Ninety-Six. and Eutaw Springs, the 
services of his legion were of vast importance, for Lee was always in the front 
of success as well as of danger. Soon after the latter battle, he left the field, 
returned to Virginia, and married a daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee. of Stratford. 
He bore to civil life the assurance of his Southern commander, that his services 
had been greater than those of any one man attached to the army. 

Mr. Lee resided with his father-in-law, and in 1786, was elected to a seat in 



1. He was a native of Vir^'nia, qnalified him^^elf for the practice of medicine, hut cast it ande for the 
duties of a soldier, wlien the war broke out. He performed many b^'lliant cervices wiih liis roips of 
dragoons, and he was in command of the British and Geimin captives, taken at Sarafrgrf, while on 
their march to, and residence in Virginia. In 1780, he was elected to a seat in Corpiess. He was f p- 
posed to the Federal Constitution, but acqniesced in the will of the majority, and represented his dislnct 
in the Federal Congress. He died at New York, in Jnne, 1790, while attending a sestion of Congress, 
at the age of forty -eight years. 

2. Washington was anxions to save Andre, and made great efforts to secure the person of Arrold. 
Sergeant Champe went to the Brilish in New York, as a deserter, enlisted in Arnold's corps, ard just 
as his scheme for seizing the traitor and conveying him across the Hudson, on a dark night, was per- 
fected, that corps embarked for Virginia, with Champe. He afterward deserted, and joined Lee's legion 
in North Carolina. 



JOHN RUTLEDGE. 153 



the Continental Congress, whore lie served his constituency faithfully until the 
adoption of the Federal Constitution. In 1791, he succeeded Beverly Randolph 
as governor of Virginia, and held that office three consecutive years. When, in 
1794, resistance to excise laws was made in Western Pennsylvania, and the 
speck of civil war, known as The Whiskey Insurrection, appeared, Washington 
appointed Governor Lee to the command of the troops sent to quell the rebellion. 
He performed his duty well, but made many bitter enemies among the con- 
temners of the law. In 1799, he was a member of the Federal Congress, and 
was chosen by that body to pronounce a funeral oration, on the death of Wash- 
ington, in the hall of the House of Representatives. He retired to private life, 
in 1801, and for many years was much annoyed by pecuniary embarrassments. 
It was while restrained within the limits of Spottsylvania county, by his creditors, 
in 1809, that he wrote his interesting i/e/WMrs of the War in the Southern Depart- 
ment of the United States. He was active in attempts to quell a political mob, 
in Baltimore, in 1814, and was so severely wounded, that he never recovered. 
Towards the close of 181 7, he went to the West Indies, for his health, but found 
no sensible relief. On his return the following Spring, he stopped to visit a 
daughter of General Greene, on Cumberland Island, on the coast of Georgia, 
and there he expired on the 25th of March, 1818, at the age of sixty-two years. 



JOHN KUTLEDGE. 

LIKE Governor Trumbull in New England, John Rutledge was the soul of 
patriotic activity in South Carolina, during the darkest period of the Revo- 
lution, whether in civil authority or as general director of military movements. 
He was a native of Ireland, and came to America with his father. Doctor John 
Rutledge, in 1735. After receiving the best education tliat could be obtained 
in Charleston, he went to London, and prepared for the profession of the law, at 
the Temple.^ In 1761, he returned to Charleston, became an active and highly 
esteemed member of his profession, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Gadsden, 
Laurens, and others, in defence of popular rights. He was chosen one of the 
representatives of his adopted State, in the first Continental Congress, with his 
brother, Edward, as one of his colleagues. When, in the Spring of 1776, the 
civil government of South Carolina was revised, and a temporary State Consti- 
tution was framed, Rutledge was appointed president of the State, and com- 
mander-in-chief of its military. Under his efficient administration, Charleston 
was prepared for the attack made in June, by Chnton and Parker, and the enemy 
was repulsed. His patriotism was never doubted, yet, like many others of the 
aristocracy, he had not entire faith in the wisdom and integrity of the people. 
Wlien, therefore, in 1778, a permanent constitution for South Carolina was 
adapted, he refused his assent, because he thought it too democratic. His preju- 
dice yielded, however, and in 1779, he was chosen governor under it, and was 
invested with temporary dictatorial powers by the legislature. He took the 
field at the head of the militia, and managed both civil and military affairs with 
great skill and energy, until after the fall of Charleston, in 1780.2 When Greene, 
aided by the southern partisan leaders, drove the British from the interior, to 

1. This was the most celeh:a!ecl place for law students in London. The buildinjr or hnildinps were so 
called, because Ihey formeily belmigred to Ihe Knights Templars. Thev are designated as the Inner 
and the Middle Temple. The original Temple-hall, or house of the Templars, was erected in 1572 ; and 
Temple-bar was built just one hundred years afterward. 

2. Charleston was besieged in Ihe Spring of 1780, bv a combined land and naval force, under General 
Sir Henry Clinton and Admiral Arbuthnot. It was defended bv Lincoln, with a feeble force, for nearly 
three months. On the 12th of May, 1780, it was surrendered to the Biitish. 



154 JOHN LANGDON. 



the sea-board, in 1781, Rutledge convened a legislative assembly at Jackson- 
borough, and thoroughly re-established civil government. After the war he 
was made judge of the Court of Chancery. He was a member of the convention 
that framed the constitution of the United States; and in 1789, was elevated to 
the bench of the Supreme Court of the Republic, as associate justice. He was 
appointed chief justice of South Carolina, in 1791; and in 1796, he was called 
to the duties of chief justice of the United States. In every official station he 
displayed equal energy and sterling integrity; and while yet bearing the robes 
of thehighest judicial office in the Republic, he was summoned from earth. His 
death occurred in July, 1800, when he was about seventy years of ago. 



JOHN LANGDON. 

" T^OUR bead will be a button for a gallows rope," said Secretary Atkinson to 
i young John Langdon, toward the close of 1774, after he and others, 
among whom was the future General Sullivan, had seized the fort at Portsmouth, 
and carried off a hundred barrels of powder, and a quantity of small arms, before 
Governor Wentworth even suspected such a daring enterprise.- That brave 
hero and future statesman was born in the toMm of Portsmouth, New Hamp- 
shire, in 1740. He was educated at a public grammar school, prepared himself 
for mercantile life, and prosecuted business upon the sea until the great ocean 
of public feeling began to be agitated by the tempest of the Revolution. Then 
he espoused the republican cause, and his first overt act of rebellion and treason 
was the seizure of the powder and arms, above alluded to. In January, 1775, 
lie was chosen a delegate to the Continental Congress, There he remained 
until 1776, when affairs in his own State demanded his presence there. He also 
served as a volunteer in some military expeditions. In 1777, he was Speaker 
of the New Hampshire Assembly; and when Burgoyne was approaching the 
Hudson with his invading army, and the whole North and East were in com- 
motion, Langdon offered to loan the State three thousand hard dollars, and the 
avails of his silver plate and some West India goods, to equip men for the army 
under Gates, remarking that if the American cause should triumph, he would 
get his pay, if not, his property would be of no value to him. He did more, for, 
with many members of the New Plampshire legislature, he served as a volunteer 
in the battles at Saratoga, which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne. Mr. 
Langdon was president of the New Hampshire convention that framed the State 
Constitution, in 1779; and the same year he was appointed Continental agent 
to contract for building some ships for the service of Congress. He was again 
elected to a seat in Congress, in 1783, and in March, 1785, he was chosen chief 
magistrate of his native State. He represented New Hampshire {with Nicholas 
Gilman) in the convention which framed the Federal Constitution, was its zeal- 
ous supporter, and after serving another term as governor, or president of his 
State, was chosen to a seat in the United States Senate, where he served about 
ten years. He was afterward an active member of the State Legislature, and 
was governor of the State almost four years. He retired into private life, in 
1812, whither he carried the most profound respect of his countrymen. That 
venerable patriot died at his birth-place, on the 18th of September, 1819, at the 
age of seventy-eight years. 

1. Atkinson was Langrlon's personal fnend, and was in earnest. The crowd present assured Langdon 
that they would protect him at all hazards. Atkinson advised him to fiee from the country, but the 
joung patriot remained, and in all the trying scenes that soon followed he was nobly sustained by his 
fellow-citizens. 



ROBERT FULTON. 



155 




ROBERT FIT I. TON. 

THE genius of Fulton was of no ordinary mold. It began to unfold in less 
than ten years after his birth, which occurred at Little Britain, Lancaster 
county, Pennsylvania, in 1765. His parents were industrfous and virtuous 
natives of Ireland, in easy but not affluent circumstances, and Protestants in 
religious fliith. His early education was meagre, but application in after life 
supplied all deficiencies. At the age of seventeen years he was painting land- 
scapes and portraits in Philadelphia, and educating his mechanical faculties by 
observations in the workshops of that capitol. Pleased with his love of art, his 
friends sent him to London, at the age of twenty-one years, to receive instruc- 
tion in painting, from the eminent Benjamin West. He formed one of that 
artist's family for several years ; and then, for a season, he resided in Devon- 
shire, and enjoyed the society of the Duke of Bridgewater and Earl of Stanhope,^ 
whose tastes for mechanics developed and encouraged those of Fulton. 

Internal navigation by canals, and improvements in machinery, now engrossed 
his attention, and having heard of Fitch's experiments in the appHcation of 

1. stanhope -was the inventor of the printing press, known by his name, and which was in general 
nse until succeeded by the invention of Andrew Ramage. 



156 HUGH WILLIAMSON. 

steam to the propulsion of boats, a new and glorious vision filled his mind with 
its splendors. He abandoned the profession of a painter, and became a civil 
engineer. In the Summer of 1797, he entered the family of Joel Barlow, in 
Paris, and there, for seven years, he assiduously pursued the study of the nat- 
ural sciences and of modern languages. There he became acquainted with tho 
wealthy and influential Robert R. Livingston. That gentleman fired tho zeal 
of Fulton, by representing the immense advantages to be derived from tho usq 
of steam in navigating the inland waters of the United States. Wealth, talent, 
and genius joined hands, and Fulton and Livingston navigated the Seine, by q 
steam-boat, in 1803. They came to America, and in i1 vV jie steamer Cler^ 
oyiont, Fulton's experiment boat, made a voyage from New York to Albany, one 
hundred and fifty miles, in thirty-six hours, against wind and tide 1 H.s triumph 
was complete and his fame was secured. 

Fulton received his first patent in 1809, and for several years he was cngage(^ 
in the perfection of steam-boat machinery, and in the improvement and con- 
struction of submarine explosive machines, called Torpedoes, to be used for blow< 
ing up vessels of war. He was successful in the construction of submarine 
batteries; and his great heart was delighted, in 1814, by the appropriation by 
Congress of three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, for the construction of 
a steam ship-of-war, under his directions. The Fulton was launched in July of 
that year ; and he who saw in her another triumph of his own genius and skill, 
was marching onward in the pathway of renown to great emoluments, when he* 
was suddenly laid in the grave. He died on the 24th of Februarj-, 1815, at th^ 
age of fifty years. Six steam-boats were then afloat on tho Hudson, and the 
honor of first crossing the ocean by steam power was just within his grasp, for 
he was building a vessel, designed for a voyage to St. Petersburg, in Russia. 



HUGH WILLIAMSON. 

ONE of the most distinguished of the adopted sons of North Carolina, both for 
his inteJectual acquirements, and his varied public services, was Hugh 
"Williamson, a native of Nottingham, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 
5th of December, 1735, the eldest of ten children. He was educated at the 
University of Pennsylvania, where he was graduated in 1757, and then prepared 
himself for the goSJ^el ministry. He was licensed to preach, but ill health com- 
pelled him to abandon that vocation, and in 1760, he was appointed Professor 
of Mathematics, in the institution where he was educated. He resigned his 
professorship in 1764, and went to Edinburgh to study the science of medicine. 
He pursued the same studies, for awhile, at Utrecht; and in 1772, he returned 
to Pliiladelphia, and commenced the successful practice of his profession. He 
took much interest in the subject of popular education, and near the close of 
1773, he sailed from Boston for England, with Dr. Ewing, to solicit aid for an 
academy at Newark, in Delaware. The vessel in which they sailed conveyed 
the first intelligence to Europe of the destruction of tea in Boston Harbor. As 
Dr. Williamson saw the occurrence, he was summoned before the Privy Council, 
in February, 1774, to give information on the subject. He gave a lucid account 
of the public feeling in America, and assured the Council that a persistance in 
enforcing parliamentary measures offensive to the colonists, would result in 
civil war. Soon after this he went to Holland and the Low Countries, and re- 
mained on the Continent until intelligence of the Declaration of Independence 



r.ICIIARD MONTGOMERY. 157 

hj the Continental Congress reached him, when he sailed for America. Off the 
capes of the Delaware the vessel was captured by a British cruiser, but Dr. Wil- 
liamson escaped in an open boat, with some important despatches. 

In 1777, Dr. Williamson went to Charleston, and with a younger brother 
engaged in mercantile speculations. To avoid capture, he ordered his vessel, 
which he had laden with merchandise for Baltimore, to proceed to Edenton, 
ISTorth Carolina, where he disposed of the cargo, and settled as a practising 
physician. The following year, he se"ved as surgeon under Colonel Richard 
Caswell, and was at the head of the medical staff of that officer in the disastrous 
battle at Camden, in August, 1780. lie was permitted to attend his wounded 
countrymen within the British lines, and was instrumental in relieving mucli , 
suffering, lie resumed his profession, at Edenton, when peace was promised; 
and in 1782, ho represented that district in the North Carolina legislature. Ilo 
was elected to Congress, in 1784, where he represented his adopted State for 
three years; and in 1787, he was a member of the convention that framed the 
Federal Constitution. That instrument was not regarded with favor, in North 
Carolina, and because of his zealous advocacy of it. Dr. Williamson lost much 
of his popularity, for awhile. The cloud soon passed away, and from 1790 until 
1792, ho represented the Edenton district in the Federal Congress. He then 
retired to private life, and devoted himself to literary pursuits, making the city 
of New York, (where he married his wife in 1789), his place of residence. His 
most important production was a History cf North Carolina, in two volumes, 
published in 1812. Two years afterward, he was associated with Dewitt Clinton 
in establishing the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York; and he 
was active in social life until the last. Dr. Williamson died suddenly, while 
taking an evening ride, on the 22d of May, 1819, at the age of eighty-four 
years. 



RICHARD MONTOOMERY. 

IN September, 1759, the accomplished General Wolfe perished in the arms of 
victory on the Plains of Abraham, at Quebec, at the early age of thirty-two 
years. Near him, when he fell, was a handsome young soldier, ten years his 
junior, who, a little more than sixteen years later, was the counnanding general 
in a siege of the same city, and also perished in the midst of his troops. That 
young soldier was Richard Montgomery, who was born in the north of Ireland, in 
1736, and entered the British army at the age of twenty years. After tne con- 
quest of Canada, he was in the campaign against Havana, under General Lyman ; 
and at the peace in 1763, he took up his residence in New York. He finally left 
his regiment, returned to England, and made unsuccessful attempts to purchase 
a majority. He sold his commission in 1772, came to America, and purchased a 
beautifal estate on the Hudson, in Dutchess county. New York. He soon after- 
ward married a daughter of Robert Livingston. It was a happy union, but 
those dreams of long years of domestic peace were soon disturbed by the gather- 
ing tempest of the Revolution. Montgomery, with all the ardor of the people 
of his birth-land, espoused the patriot cause, joined the army under General 
Schuyler, destined for the invasion of Canada, and was second in command, in 
the Autumn of 1775, bearing the commission of a brigadier. Illness of the chief 
devolved the whole duty of leadership upon Montgomery, and he went on suc- 
cessfully until St. John, Chambly, and Montreal, were in his power. Congress 
gave him the commission of major-general, and amid the snows of December, ho 
pressed forward to join Arnold in an assault upon Quebec. For three weeks he 



158 JOSEPH BUANT. 



besieged that city; and early on the momiing of the 31st of December, while 
snow was fast falling, an attempt was made to take the town by storm. Mont- 
gomery was killed while leading a division along the shores of the St. Lawrence, 
beneath the precipitous Cape Diamond. Arnold was also wounded at another 
point of attack, and the great object of the expedition failed. For forty years 
the remains of Montgomery rested within the walls of Quebec. At the request 
of his widow, in 1818, they were disinterred, conveyed to New York, and placed 
beneath a mural monument, erected by order of Congress, on the external wall 
of the front of St. Paul's church, in that city. Millions of people, passing along 
BroadTay, have looked upon that monument, the memorial of one whose praises 
were spoken in Parliament by the great Chatham and Barke, and of wbom Lord 
North said, "'Curse on his virtues; they have undone his country." He was in 
the fortieth year of his age when he fell.' 



JOSEPH BRANT. 

THATENDANEGtEA, one of the most renowned of the warrioijs of the Six 
Nations of Indians in the State of New York, was a Mohawk of the pure 
native blood. His father was an Onondaga chief, and Tbayendanegea (which 
signifies a bundle of sticks, or strength), was born on the banks of the Ohio, in 
1742, There his father died, and his mother returned to the Mohawk Valley 
with her two children — this sou, and a sister who became a concubine of Sir 
"William Johnson. She married a Mohawk, whom the white people called Parent, 
which, in abbreviation, was pronounced Brant. Sir William Johnson placed the 
boy in Dr. Wheelock's school, at Lebanon, in Connecticut, where he was named 
Joseph, and was educated for the Christian ministry among his own people. Sir 
William employed him as secretary and agent in public aft'airs, with the Indians, 
and hi^ missionary labors never extended much beyond the services of an in- 
terpreter for Mr. Kirkland and others. Ho was much employed in that business 
from 1762 to 1765. Under the stronger influence of Johnson and his family, 
Brant resisted the importunities of Mr. Kirkland to remain neutral when the 
war of the Revolution approached, and he took an active part with the British 
and Tories. In 1775, he left the Mohawk Valle}-, went to Canada, and finally 
to England, wliere he attracted great attention, and found free access to the 
nobility. The Earl of Warwick caused Romney, the eminent painter, to make 
a portrait of him, for his collection, from which the prints of the great chief 
have been made. Througliout the Revolution, he was engaged in predatory 
warfare, chiefly on the border settlements of New York and Pennsylvania, with 
the Johnsons and Butlers ; and he was generally known as Captain Brant, though 
he held a colonel's commission, from the king. Brant again visited England, in 
1783, to make arrangements for the benefit of the Mohawks, who had left their 
ancient country, and had settled on the Grand River, west of Lake Ontario, in 
Upper Canada. The territory given them by the government embraced six 
miles on both sides of the river from its mouth to its source. There Brant was 
the head of the nation until his death. He translated a part of the New Testa- 
ment into the Mohawk language, and labored much for the spiritual and tem- 
poral welfare of his ruined people. There he died on the 24th of November, 
1807, at the age of sixty-five years. One of his sons was a British officer on the 
Niagara frontier, in the war of 1812 ; and a daughter married W. J. Kerr, Esq., 
of Niagara, in 1824. 

1. The inscription on his monument says that he was thirty-seven years old. This is a mistake. 



JOHN" HANCOCK. 



159 








JOHN HANCOCK. 

J ^ VERY American reader is familiar with the name and the bold, clerkly sigr 
J nature of the president of the Continental Congress, in 1776.' With a hand 
as firm as his heart, he affixed that signatm^e to the Declaration of Independence, 
saying, "The British ministry can read that name without spectacles; let them 
double their reward."^ He was born at Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1737, and 
at an early age was left to the care of a paternal uncle, a wealthy merchant of 
Boston, who cherished his future heir with great affection. At a pr.;per age, 
John was placed in Harvard College, where he was graduated in 1754. when 
only seventeen years old. He then entered his uncle's counting-room as clerk ; 
and such was his integrity and capacity, that in 1761, he was sent to England 
on a business mission. There he saw the coronation of George the Third, and 

1. The fac-simile above giveii is a third smaller than the original. It was redticed to accommodate it 
to the page. 

2. This was ia reference to a large reward that had been offered for the apprehension of John Hancock 
and Samuel Adams, early in 1775, they being considered arch-rebels. 



160 JOHN HANCOCK. 



became acquainted with, some of the leading men in London^ When he was 
twenty-six years of age, his uncle died, and left him a large fortune — the largest 
in New England — and he became not only one of the most eminent of the Boston 
merchants, but a leader in the best society of Massachusetts, Fond of popularity 
and the excitements of public life, he entered the arena of politics, and became 
a leader of the republican party in New England. He represented Boston in 
the General Assembly, in 1766, and was much esteemed by those noble col- 
leagues, Otis, Gushing, and the Adamses. Ho stood shoulder to shoulder with 
those patriots in resistance to the obnoxious measures of parliament, Vvdiich suc- 
ceeded the Stamp Act; ^ and one of the earhest of the popular outbreaks in 
Boston was in consequence of the seizure of one of Mr. Hancock's vessels by the 
officers of the customs."^ Ho was an abettor of the tea-riot, in 1773; and in 
March following, he boldly delivered the annual oration, in commemoration cf 
the "Boston massacre."-^ The same year he was chosen president of tho 
Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, and also a delegate to the Conti- 
nental Congress, which convened in Philadelphia, in September. He was 
a member of that body the following j^ear, and on the resignation of its 
president, Peyton Randolph, Mr. Hancock was chosen to fill that exalted seat. 
He performed his arduous duties with dignity and fidelity; and Vv^Iion, in 
July, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted, it was sent forth to 
the world with tho names of only President Hancock and Secretary Thomson 
attache].'* 

Mr. Hancock's health became impaired, in 177t, by tho ravages of gout, a 
disease hereditary in tho family, and he resigned his seat in Congress, and re- 
turned home, with a hope and desire for happiness in tho repose of domestic 
life.'' But his fellow-citizens soon sought his aid in the preparation of a constitu- 
tion for the new republican State of Massachusetts. Ho assisted them with 
cheerfulness, and he was honored by an election to the chief magistracy of 
the commonwealth under its new organization. He held the office five con- 
secutive years, and then declined a reLdection. In 1787, he was again elected 
governor, and held that position, by the annual choice of the people, until his 
death, which occurred on the 8th of October, 1793, at tho age of fifcy-six years. 
Prom the first appearance of Mr. Hancock in public life, until his death, a period 
of about thirty years, no man was more popular m New England. He did not 
possess extraordinary talent, but was endowed with great tact, a clear percep- 
tion of human character and the secret of its control, and made a liberal and 
judicious use of his large fortune in acts of benevolence, and for public good. 
He was beloved by all his cotemporaries for his courtesy and kindness of heart, 
and his enemies were only those who foolishly allowed political differences to 
engender ill-will in their own hearts. 



1. In 1767, Mr. Hancock was elected a member of the executive council, but the governor rejected 
b'.m. He was again and again elected, and as often rejected. At last the governor, who knew his 
character well, and feared his popularity, admitted him to a seat. Previous to his first election to tho 
council, the governor, hoping to win him to the cause of the crown, presented him wi.h a lieutenant's 
commission. Mr. Hancock perceived the bribe iu the prolfered honor, and tore up the commission iu 
the presence of the people. 

2. His sloop lAherty was seized by the officers of eustoms, under a charge of concealing contraband 
goods. The people turned out, beat the officers, burned the government boat, and drove the ofhcials to 
the fort in the harbor, for safety. 

3. See notes on pages 59 and 87- For seveval years a public oration was pronounced on the anniversary 
of the event alluded to. 

4. The other signatures were attached to the document on the 2d of August following, when the Dec- 
laration was duly engrossed on parchment. 

5. When, in 1778, General Sullivan prepared to attack the British on Rhode Island, and called upon 
the New England militia for aid, Mr. Hancock took the field, for a short time, as commander of those 
of his own State. He was a participator in the stirring events near Bristol Ferry, at th« northern end 
of Rhode Island, in August, 1778. 



HENr.T LAURENS. 161 



HENRY LAURENS. 

THE descendants of the Huguenots, or French Protestant refugees, who fled 
to America toward the close of the seventeenth centurj'-, were all faithful 
to the principles of their ancestors when the War for Independence was kindling, 
and almost to a man were found on the side of the republicans. Of these, 
Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, was one of the most active and uncompromis- 
ing patriots of that period. He was born in Charleston, in 1724, became a suc- 
cessful merchant, and in 1770, retired from business with a large fortune. He 
had already taken part in the political movements in the province, and when he 
went to England, in 1771, for the pleasui-e of change, ho there heartily espoused 
the patriot cause, in the disputes then growing warmer and warmer. He even 
justilicd the people of Boston, in the destruction of the tea, in 1773, for he per- 
sisted in regarding it in its political aspect only ; and in the Brilisli metropolis 
he was looked upon as a rebel, though he liad not yet committed an overt act 
of rebellion. Mr. Laurens returned to Charleston, in 1774, and presided over 
the first Provincial Congress, held in that city in January, 1775. When the 
Congress appointed a council of safety to act in its stead, Mr. Laurens was chosen 
president of that body. It was an office equivalent to that of govemor, and 
consequently he may be regarded as tlie first republican chief magistrate of 
South Carolina. When a temporary constitution for the new State was framed 
in 1776, he was made vice-president under it; and the following year he was 
elected to a seat in the Continental Congress. He was chosen its president, in 
November, 1777, but resigned the office in December, 1778. In 1779, Congress 
appointed him minister plenipotentiary to Holland, to negotiate a comn;erciai 
treaty with that power, but ho did not sail for Europe until the Summer of 1780. 
The vessel that conveyed him was captured by a British fiigate. Mr. Laurens 
cast his papers into the sea, but as tiiey did not sink injmediately, they were 
recovered, and disclosed the fact that Holland had already been in secret nego- 
tiation with the revolted colonies. That discovery led to a declaration of war 
by Great Britain against Holland. Laurens was taken to London, and imprisoned 
in the Tower about fourteen months, under a charge of liigh treason. For some 
time he was not allowed the solace of conversation, Looks, pen, ink, paper, or 
the receipt of letters. That rigor was abated, yet his confinement made terrible 
inroads upon his constitution. At length public sentiment expressed its dis- 
pleasure because of his treatment, and tho ministry, fearing retaliation on the 
part of the Americans, desired an excuse to release him. One of his friends was 
instructed to say, that he should be pardoned, if he would write a note to Lord 
North, and express his sorrow for what he had done. "Pardon!" exclaimed 
Laurens indignantly. " I have done nothing to require a pardon, and I will 
never subscribe to my own infamy and the dishonor of my children." He could 
never be induced to make the least concessions; and finally, when pubhc clamor 
for his release became too vehement to be longer disregarded, the ministry had 
him admitted to bail' on security procured by themselves, and he was discharged 

1. In that ceremony, when Uic worrls of Ihe recoeni/.ance, "Onr Sovereign Lord the Kirg," were 
read, Mr. Lauiens immediately said. " Not my sovereign !" On anclher occasion, when he was ret,Hcsted 
to write to his son, John, then on amission to France, ar.d advise himlo leave that countiy, Mr. Laurens 
replied, " My son is of ajie, and has a will of his own ; if I should wiite to him in the teims y< ii lequtst, 
it would hav3 no effect, he would oniv concliidu tiuit confincniei t and fipimadon had soflerod me. I 
know him to be a ni;in of ho-n •. TI i loves mi dearly, and wonM hiy down his life to save mine ; hut I 
am sure he would not .sic li 'ice his honor to save mine, ard I applaud him." That son was woi thy of such 
a father. He was sent to France to solicit a loan. He was assured by Vevgenues, ihe French mir.ister, 
that his king had every disposition to favor the Americans. Young liuui ens withdrew to the opposite 
side of the room, and said, with emphasis, " Favor, sir ! The respect which I owe to my country will 
not admit the term. Say that the obligation is mutual, and I cheerfully subscribe to the obligation. 
But as the last argument I shall ofifer to your excellency, ihe sword which I now wear in defence of 

ii 



162 JAMES OTIS. 



before the allotted time of trial. Lord Shelburne was then premier, and he 
solicited Mr. Laurens to remain in Europe* and assist in the pending negotiations 
for peace. Laurens complied; and in November, 1782, he signed the prelimin- 
ary treaty between the United States and Great Britain. Soon after that event, 
he returned home, suffering much from the effects of his rigorous confinement. 
His constitution was shattered beyond recovery, and he steadily refused the 
honors of official station frequently offered him by his grateful countrymen. His 
health gradually failed, and on the 8th of December, 1792, he expired, when 
almost sixty-nine years of age. The following remarkable injunction, expressed 
in his Will, was literally complied with: '•! solemnly enjoin it on my son, as an 
indispensable duty, that as soon as he conveniently can after my decease, he 
cause my body to be wrapped in twelve yards of tow-cloth, and burnt until it 
be entirely consumed, and then, collecting my bones, deposit them wherever he 
he may think proper." 



JAMES OTIS. 

" ATIS was a flame of fire. With a promptitude of classical allusions, a depth 
17 of research, a rapid summary of historical events and dates, a profusion 
of legal authorities, a prophetic glance of his eyes into futurity, and a rapid tor- 
rent of impetuous eloquence, he hurried away all before him. American Inde- 
pendence was then and there born." Such was the expressed estimate of the 
power and influence of James Otis, by John Adams, when writing of that early 
patriot's great speech against Writs of Assistance,' before the General Court of 
Massachusetts. He was the son of Colonel James Otis, of Barnstable, and was 
born there on the 5th of February, 1725. He was educated at Harvard College, 
where he was graduated in 1743. Choosing the law for a profession, he studied 
it under the eminent Jeremy Gridley, and commenced its practice at Plymouth' 
when he was twenty-one years of age. Two years afterward, he went to Boston 
to reside, where his talent and integrity soon raised him to a front rank in his 
profession. It was in 1761 that he made the powerful speech above alluded to, 
on which occasion he was opposed by his law-tutor, Mr. Gridley, then attorney- 
general of the province. " Every man of an immense crowded assembly," wrote 
John Adams, "appeared to go away, as I did, ready to take up arms against 
Writs of Assistance." The following year Mr. Otis was elected to a seat in the 
Massachusetts General Assembl}'-, and he became the head and front of opposi- 
tion to aggressive ministerial measures, in New England. In the Colonial Con- 
gress of delegates at Nov/ York, in 1765, gathered in consequence of the passage 
of the Stamp Act, Mr. Otis was an efficient member; and the same year he 
wrote and published, in pamphlet form, a powerful vindication of the rights of 
the colonies. It was re-published in London, and awakened the ire of ministers 
to such a degree that they threatened the author with arrest on a charge of 

Friice, as well as my own country, nnless the snccor I solicit is immediately accorded, I may be com- 
P^IIjI, within a short time, to draw against France as a British subject. I must now inform your ex- 
cellency that my next memorial will be presciled to his majesty, in person." This bold reply had jrreat 
effect upon Vergennes, for he most dreaded a remnriliation between the United Slates and (freat Britain. 
True to his promise, Laurens attended at (he audience chamber of the kinp, the next day, and presented 
his m ?mirial, in person, to his majesty. It was hinded to (/ount Segur, and on the following day I.aurens 
was otficially informed that the required aid should be given. The succor came, and in the Autumn, by 
the assistance of French funds, and French soldiers and seamen, Onrnwallis was captured, and the death 
blow to British power in America was given. That noble young man was killed in a skirmish on the 
banks of the Combahep, at the close of hostilities, in August, 1782, when he was only twenty-nine years 
of nge. He had been Washington's aid, and that chief loved him as a child. Greene wrote, " The State 
will feel his loss." 
1. See note 2, page 122. 



JAMES OTIS. 



163 




sedition. For several years, Mr. Otis held the office of judge advocate. Becom- 
ing disgusted with the continually developing government schemes to enslave 
the colonies, he determined to dissolve all personal connection with the crown 
party, and resigned that lucrative office, in 1767. 

Mr. Otis was sometimes unnecessarily caustic in the use of his tongue and 
pen. In the Summer of 1769, he published some severe strictures upon the 
conduct of the commissioners of customs, and early in September, he had a per- 
sonal affi'ay with one of them, named Eobinson, and others. Robinson struck 
Otis a severe blow on the head, with a bludgeon, from the effects of which he 
never recovered. His brain was injured and liis reason was dethroned. A jury, 
in a civil suit against the ruffian, awarded a verdict of ten thousand dollars, 
damages. Otis had lucid intervals, and during one of them, he magnanimously 
forgave his destroyer when he craved the boon, and generously refused to re- 
ceive a dollar of the sum awarded to him. For many years afterward the patriot 
lived on, with his great intellect in ruins, a comparatively useless man and a 
deep grief to his relatives.^ None loved him more devotedly, or grieved more 

1. The followinis: anecdote is related of Mr. Otis as illustrative of his ready use of Latin even during 
inoments of mental aberration. Men and boys, heartless and thoughtless, would somt'limes make them- 
•elves merry at his expense when he was seen in th*streets afflicted with lunacy. On one occasion he 
was passing a crockery store, when a young man, who had a knowledge of Latin, sprinkled some water 
upon him from a sprinkling-pot with whicli he was wetting the floor of the second story, at the same 
tirae saying, Pluit tanUim, nescio quantum, Seis v tu P "It rains so much, I know not how much. Do 
you know ?" Otis immediately picked up a missile, and, hurling it through the window of the crockery 



164 JAMES CRAIK. 



bitterly, than bis gifted sister, Mercy Warren, and to her hand and voice his 
occasionally turbulent spirit lent a quick and willing obedience. "When, at 
times, the cloud was lifced from his reason, he talked calmly of death, and often 
expressed a desire to die by a stroke of lightning. His wish was gratified. On 
the 23d of May, 1783, he stood leaning on his cane, in the door of a friend's 
house at Andover, watching the sublime spectacle of a hovering thunder-cloud, 
when suddenly a bolt leaped from it like a swift messenger from God to his spirit, 
and killed him instantly.' 

All through the great struggle for independence, to which his eloquence had 
excited his countrymen, James Otis was like a blasted pine on the mountains — 
like a stranded wreck in the midst of the billows. It was just as the sunlight 
of peace burst upon his disenthralled country, that his spirit departed for the 
realm of unclouded intelligence. 



JAMES CRAIK. 

OF the fjiraily physician of the great Washington, and the companion-in-arms 
of that beloved Leader in his earlier military career, there are but few rec- 
ords left, and these cluster like parasites around the huge proportions of the 
biography of the Father of his country. Dr. Craikwas a native of Scotland, and 
settled in Virginia, while yet quite a youth. Ho accompanied lieutenant-colonel 
Washington in his expedition against the French and Indians in Western Penn- 
sylvania, in 1754, and was a surgeon in one of the provincial corps, under Brad- 
dock, the following year. He dressed that oflBcer's flUal wounds on the night 
of the battle of the Monongahela, and stood by Colonel Washington when he 
read the impressive funeral service of the Church of England, over the body of 
the fallen commander. Fifteen years afterward, while Dr. Craik was exploring 
some wild lands near the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, he met a venerable 
chief; who said, that in the battle when Braddock was killed, he fired his rifle 
at Washington fifteen times, but could not hit him ! His young warriors did 
the same, with a like result, and all believed that the Great Spirit specially pro- 
tected the young hero. 

Dr. Craik served in his professional capacity during portions of the War for 
Independence ; and at the siege of Yorktown, he was director-general of the 
hospital there. He accompanied Washington to the death-bed side of Mr. Custis 
— one of the children of Mrs. Washington ; and at the close of the war, he settled 
near Mount Vernon, by invitation of the Chief, and became his family physi- 
cian. When the good Patriot was suddenly prostrated by the disease which 
terminated his life, a servant was dispatched, in great haste, for Dr. Craik. With 
all the attention of a dear friend, and the skill of a good physician, he watched 
his noble patient until the last. He lived to take an interest in another war for 
independence, but died in the midst of its tumult. It was on the 6th day of 
February, 1814, when the spirit of the family physician of Washington left earth 
for the world of light and immortality. He was then in the eighty-fourth year 
of his age. 

store, it smashing everything in its way, exclaimed, Fregi tot, nescio qiiot, Sets ne tu? "I have broken 
so many, I know not how' many. Do you know?" 

1. Honorable Thomas Dawes" wrote a commemorative ode, in which he thus referred to the manner of 
Otis' death : 

" Hark ! the deep thunders echo 'round the skies I 
On wings of flame the eternal errand flies ; 
One chosen, charitable bolt is sped. 
And Otis mingles with the glorious dead." 



TIMOTHY PICKERING. 165 



TIMOTHY PICKBKINO. 

' Through Salem strait, without delay, 
The bold battaliou took its way ; 
Marched o'lt a biidge, in open sight 
Of several Yaukees armed for fight ; 
Then, without loss of time or men, 
Veer'd 'round for Boston, back again. 
And found so well their projects thiive, 
That every soul got back al.vj." 

THUS wrote Trumbull, in his McFingal,^ concerning: an event at Marblehead, 
in Massachusetts, in which Colonel Timothy Pickering, one of the most 
useful of the military and civil officers of the Republic in its earlier days, was 
chief actor. Pickering was a native of the ancient town of Salem, in Essex 
county, Massachusetts, where he was born on the 17th of July, 1745. He en- 
tered Harvard College, as a student, at the ago of fourteen years, and was grad- 
uated at ninotoen, with the usual college honors. Ho studied law, and entered 
upon its practice at tlie moment when the tempest of popular indignation, raised 
by the Stamp Act, was sweeping over the land. Ho entered the arena of polit- 
ical discussion, and was at once the avowed champion of popular freedom. For 
several years he was register of Salem, and colonel of the Essex militia; and 
when, in 1774, the people of Salem resolved to address General Gage on the 
subject of the Boston Port-Bill, Colonel Pickering was chosen to prepare it, and 
present it in person to tlie governor.' A few months afterward, he had the 
honor of making the first resistance to the invasion of the province by British 
troops. He was informed that a body of them had landed at Marblehead, for 
the purpose of marching through Salem to seize some American stores in the 
interior. It was Sunday, the 25th of February, 1775. The ministers of the 
churches dis uissed their congregations. The men gathered at the call of Colonel 
Pickering, and when the invaders approached the Salem drawbridge, these 
minute-men boldly confronted them. Perceiving prudence to be tlie better part 
of valor, tlie British marched back to Marblehead, and returned to Boston. This 
was the event alluded to by the poet. 

Early in the Spring of 1775, Colonel Pickering was chosen judge of the Court 
of Common Pleas, of Essex; and when, on the 19th of April, intelligence of tho 
skirmish at Lexington reached him, he hastened, at the head of liis regiment, to 
intercept the invaders. After that he exercised tho duties of his judgeship, until 
the Autumn of 1776, when, at the head of seven hundred Essex men, he joined 
the army undor Washington, near Now York, and was with him in his memorable 
retreat across the Jerseys, toward the close of that year. He continued with 
the chief until the Winter of l777-'8, when he was appointed, by Congress, a 
member of the Bojird of War. In the battles at Brandywine and Germantown, 
he had acted as adjutant-general, and his military skill and experience, com- 
mended him highly to his commander and tlio national council. In 1780, ho 
succeeded General Greene in the important office of quartermaster-general. He 
performed the duties of that office efficiently until the close of the war, and then 
he made Philadelphia his residence. Difficulties soon afterward occurred among 
the Connecticut and Pennsylvania people, in the Wyoming Yalley, and Mr. 
Pickering was appointed by his adopted State, to attempt a settlement of tho 

1. See sketch of John Trumbull, the poet. 

2. For the purpose of punishing the people of Bcton for the destruction of the cargoes of tea, in 1773, 
parliament decreed that the port of that city should be closed— that no vessels should enter or ciear 
there, and that the Custom House and other public offices should be removed to Salem. The act took 
eSfect OTi the 1st of June, 1774. Great distress ensued. Tho people of Marblehead gave the Bostonians 
free use of their docks, and in the Address alluded 1o in the text, the people of Salem refused to receive 
any favors at the expense of their neighbors of Boston. 



166 WILLIAM GOEDOX. 



troubles. There he suffered personal ill-treatment, his life was endangered, and 
ho finally returned to Philadelphia. In 1790, he was a member of the conven- 
tion to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania; and the following year Wash- 
ington appointed him Postmaster-general, as successor to Mr. Osgood. He con- 
tinued in that office until tlio resignation of General Knox, almost four years 
afterward, when he succeeded that officer as Secretary of War. The same year 
he was appointed Secretary of State, and held the position until 1800, when Mr. 
Adams removed him for political causes. Mr. Pickering was then fiftj'-five years 
of age, poor in purse, but rich in integrity. He built a log cabin for his family 
on some of his wild land in Pennsylvania, and commenced the arduous task of 
clearing it for cultivation. Generous friends purchased the tract at a liberr.l 
price, and he returned to his native State, out of debt and possessing a moderate 
competence. The legislature of Massacliusetts chose him to represent tliat State 
in the United States Senate, in 1803; and, in 1805, he was reelected for six 
years. Ho was a member of the Board of War, of Massachusetts, in 1812, and, 
in 1814, he was elected a member of the United States House of Representatives. 
Old age now began to demand repose, and he retired from pubhb life, in 1817. 
He was permitted to live about twelve years longer ; and on the 29th of January, 
1829, he died at Salem, when almost eighty-four years of age. 



WILLIAM aORDON. 

THE most faithful and impartial History of the American Revolution, by a 
cotemporary author, was written by WiUiam Gordon, an English independ- 
ent clergyman, who was in America during the struggle of the colonists for 
civil and political freedom. He was born in Hertfordshire, England, about the 
year 1740, and at an early age was pastor of an Independent congregation at 
Ipswich, where his faithfulness in reproving Sabbath-breakers, made him many 
enemies, and gave him an uneasy place. He became successor to Dr. Jennings, 
as pastor of a church at Wapping, and was so much beloved, that he might have 
passed his life pleasantly there. But he had long y^earned to make America his 
home, and, in 1770, he sailed for Boston. For about a j^ear he preached in one 
of the cliurches at Roxbury; and in July, 1772, he was chosen its pastor. He 
was a republican, and soon became identified with the popular party, in Massa- 
chusetts, in opposition to the crown. When tlie Provincial Congress of that 
colony was formed, in 1774, Dr. Gordon was chosen its chaplain, and ho con- 
tinued a faithful adherent to the patriot cause, After the promulgation of the 
Declaration of Independence, in 1776, he conceived tho idea of writing a history 
of the progressing struggle, and he kept full notes during the entire war. When 
it was ended, he was allowed free access to public records, and to the papers 
of Wasliington, Greene, Gates, and other distinguished officers. In 178G. ho 
returned to his native country, completed his history, and published it in Lon- 
don, in 1788. It was soon afterward re-published in New York, in three volumes. 
The work is now very scarce. The author received about fifteen hundred 
dollars for his service in its preparation. In 1793, he was settled as a pastor at 
St. Neots, in Huntingdonshire, but his unpopularity as a preacher, on account 
of evidently failing intellect, caused his friends to persuade him to resign. He 
afterward made his residence at Ipswich, where he preached a few occasional 
sermons. Soon his memory became a blank, he sunk into imbecility, and thus 
remained, until his death, on the 19th of October, 1807, when about seventy- 
seven years of age. 



DAVID RAMSAY. 



167 




DAVID RAMSAY. 

THE authors of our country are indebted to Dr. David Ramsay, of South 
Carohna, one of the earUest historians of the War for Independence, for the 
first suggestions and efforts in rohition to a copyright law.^ He was born of 
Irish parents, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of April, 1749, and 
at a suitable age was placed in the College at Princeton, New Jers y. There 
he was graduated in 1765, and after performing the duties of tutor in a private 
family in Maryland for about two years, he commenced the study of medicine, 
in Philadelphia. In 1772, he entered upon its practice there, but, at the solicit- 
ation of friends, he made the city of Charleston his residence, the following year. 
There he soon took a front rank as a physician and scholar, and being an ardent 
patriot, he became a political leader by the side of Gadsden, Laurens, and others. 
His pen and tongue were ever busy in the good cause ; and he also attended 

1. Soon after the assembling of the first Federal Congress, under the new Corsiitntion, in 1780, Br. 
Ramsay sent in a petition, asking for the passage of a law for secnring to him and his heirs the exclusive 
right to vend and dispose of his books, respectively entitled, The Hiftonj of the Revolution in South 
Carolina, and A History of the American Revolution. A bill for that purpose was framed and discussed. 
Finally, in August, it was "postponed until the next Congress." A similar bill was introduced in 
January, 1790, and on the 30th of April following, the first copyright law recorded on the statute books 
of Congress, was passed. 



168 EOGER SHERMAN". 



the republican army as a surgeon much of the time until after the siege of 
Savannah, in which he participated. 

Dr. Ramsay was an efficient member of the Council of Safety, and also of the 
Legislative Assembly of South Carolina, and became a distinguished object of 
Britisli and Tory hatred. He was in Charleston during the memorable siege in 
1780; and when it fell into the hands of the British, he was made a captive, and 
with many other eminent citizens, suffered banishment to, and imprisonment at, 
St. Augustine, in Florida. After an absence of eleven months, he returned, 
resumed his seat in the legislature at Jacksonborough, in the early part of 1782, 
and therein, after all his sufferings, he was one of the most earnest advocates 
of leniency toward the Tories. He was elected a member of Congress that same 
year, and continued to represent his adopted State, in that body, until after the 
close of th3 war. He was again elected to Congress, in 1785, and in November, 
1786, he was chosen its president, pro tenijwre, during the protracted absence of 
President Hancock. His first historical work, mentioned in his petition referred 
to in the note on the preceding page, was published in 1785, and his History of 
the Americaii Revolatkm was issued in 1790. Ho now declined all official stations 
and honors, and devotoi himself to his profession, and to literary pursuits. He 
wrote a life of Washington, and published it in 1801 ; and in 1808, ho pubhshed 
a History of South Carolina} He then wrote a History of the United States ; 
and he continued the employment of all of his leisure hours in the preparation 
of a series of historical works, intended to illustrate the state of society, literature, 
rehgion, and form of government of the United States of America, by a general 
historical view of tlie world. These he did not live to complete, according to 
his original intention, yet they were sufficiently perfect to warrant their pub- 
lication, in twelve octavo volumes, in 1819. His History of the United States 
was brought down to the treaty of Ghent, in 1814, by the reverend Samuel 
Stanhope Smith, and other literary gentlemen, and published in three octavo 
volumes, in 1817. In the midst of his useful and unwearied labors,^ literary 
and professional. Dr. Ramsay was snatched from earth. He was shot by a 
maniac, near his residence, and on the 8th of May, 1815, his labors and his 
mortal life closed forever, v/hen ho was little more than sixty-six years of age. 



KOOER SHERMAN. 

IT is said that " Love laughs at locksmiths!" So true Genius laughs at im- 
pediments, and gathers strength for conquests in proportion to the severity 
of its conflicts. The life of Roger Sherman, a humble shoe-maker, illustrates 
the fact. He was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on the 19th of April, 1722. 
"While Rogor was an infant, his parents removed to Stonington, where they 
resided until the death of his father, in 1741. Roger was then nineteen years 
of age. He had been apprenticed to a shoemaker, but now the necessities of 
his mother required him to take charge of a small farm that her husband had 
left. They sold the estate in 1744, and went to reside in New Milford Connec- 
ticut, where Roger's elder brother had married and settled. The journey was 
performed on foot by Roger, and he carried his "kit" of shoemaker's tools, on 
his back. There he worked industriously at his trade, and at the same time he 
apphed himself assiduously to study, for his early education was exceedingly 

1. This WIS an extension of a work, published in 179.), entitled, " A sketch of the soil, climate, weather 
and diseases of South Carolina." 

2. Dr. Ramsay seldom slept more than four boars of the twenty-four, each day. 



i 



RICHARD PETERS. 169 



limited. Ho learned rapidly, for his mind was quick, comprehensive, and logical, 
and at his bench he acquired a vast amount of knowledge from books.^ After 
awhile, he became a partner of his brother, in mercantile business, and employed 
his now more numerous leisure hours in the study of the law, but without a 
tutor or guide. He soon became proficient in the requisite knowledge, and at 
the close of 1754, he was admitted to the bar. His talents at once drew public 
attention toward him, and in 1755, he was elected to a seat in the General As- 
sembly of Connecticut. He was appointed a justice of the peace the same year ; 
and after a law-practice of about five years, he received the appointment of 
judge of the court for Litchfield county. He made his residence in New Haven, 
ill 1761, where he received the same official honors and emoluments. He was 
also chosen treasurer of Yale College ; and that institution conferred upon him 
the honorary degree of Master of Arts. In 1766, he was elected to the State 
Senate, and he fearlessly took part with the people in their opposition to the 
Stamp Act. He was a leading patriot in Connecticut, until the commencement 
of the Revolution; and all through that struggle he was ever at his post of duty, 
for he regarded eternal vigilance as the price of liberty. He was elected a 
delegate for Connecticut in the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and ho held 
a scat there during a greater portion of the war. He advocated independence, 
and signed the great Declaration. In 1783, he assisted in the revision of the 
laws of Connecticut, and he was a representative of that State in the convention 
tliat framed the Federal Constitution. In his State convention called to act 
upon it, he ably advocated its ratification, and for two years after the organiza- 
tion of our present government, he represented Connecticut in the Federal 
Congress. He was then promoted to a seat in the Senate of the United States, 
and occupied that honorable position at the time of his death, which occurred 
on the 23d of July, 1793, when in the seventy-third year of his age. Ho then 
held the office of mayor of New Haven, having been the first chosen to that 
post of duty, after the borough was organized as a city. 



RICHAKD PETERS. 

THE first Secretary of War, of the United States, was Richard Peters, an em- 
inent jurist and agriculturist of Pennsylvania. He was born near Phila- 
delphia, on the 22d of August, 1744, and was educated at the college in that 
city, where he was graduated in 1764. Ho had acquired a thorough knowledge 
of the Greek and Latin languages, and spoke the French and German fluently. 
He chose the profession of law as a pursuit, and his knowledge of the German 
language was of essential service to him in the management of property cases 
in the interior of Pennsylvania. He was distinguished for wit and humor, and 
when he accompanied a delegation to confer with some of the Six Nations of 
Indians, his vivacity so pleased the children of the forest, that he was formally 
adopted as a son, by the Senecas. At the opening of the Revolution he appeared 
in the field as captain of a company of volunteers; and when, in June, 1776, a 
Board of War was appointed by Congress, Mr. Peters was chosen its Secretary, 
and thus became the first incumbent of that office, now one of the cabinet 
bureaus. He held that position until 1781, and performed the duties of his sta- 

1. He always had an open boot by bis side, on the bench, and read at intervals, when his eyes were 
rot required upon his work. He thus acquired a fair knowledge of mathemalics, and before he was 
twenty -one years of age he made astronomical calculations for an Almanac published in New York. 



170 EDMUND RANDOLPH. 

tion with great ability.' He was succeeded by General Lincoln, and retired 
with the expressed thanks of Congress. lie was then elected a member of that 
body, and was a representative of his State therein for several j^ears. On the 
organization of the Federal Government, in 1789, Mr. Peters declined a fiscal 
office tendered to him by Washington, but accepted that of judge of the United 
States District Court of Pennsylvania. He bore the ermine with great honor to 
himself and country, for thirty-six years, and was always zealous in the promo- 
tion of the material interests of his State. In the construction of public works 
of utility he was always foremost; and to him the country is indebted for the 
use of gypsum in agriculture, and the introduction of clover. The subject of 
farming occupied much of his attention, and he was one of the founders, nnd for 
a long time preside i^t of the Philadelphia Agricultural Society. Judge Peters 
died at Blockley, near Philadelphia, on the 21st of August, 1828, at the age of 
eighty-four years. 



EDMUND RANDOLPH. 

AMONG the most important members of the convention which framed the 
Constitution of the United States, was Edmund Randolph, the only son of 
John Randolph, attorney-general of Virginia. Of his birth and youthful career 
Histor}^ bears no record. He was quite a young man when the Revolution 
commenced, and was one of Washington's aids, at Cambridge, in 1775. He left 
the army in November following, and returned to Virginia, on account of the 
death of his relative, Peyton Randolph, president of the Continental Congress. 
Pour years later he was elected a member of that body, and represented his 
native State there until March, 1782. He succeeded Patrick Henry as gov- 
ernor of Virginia, in 1786, and it was chiefly through his agency that Washing- 
ton was persuaded to represent that State in the Federal Convention, in 1787. 
Randolph was very active in that convention, but, like Patrick Henry, he was 
so jealous of State Rights, that he declined to affix his name to the Constitution, 
desiring' to be free to act upon it afterward, as his judgment or the opinions of 
his constituents might dictate.' When the time cgme to act, his desire for union 
overcame his narrower scruples ; and in the Virginia State Convention he elo- 
quently advocated the adoption of the Federal Constitution. Washington made 
him the first attorney -general of the United States, under that compact; and in 
1794, Randolph succeeded Mr. Jefferson as Secretary cf State. He resigned 
that office in August, 1795, and turned his attention to his embarrassed private 
aflfliirs. His resignation was in consequence of some misunderstanding with the 
administration; and in the Autumn of that year he published a Yir.dicaiicn. 
He then withdrew from public life, and never again entered the arena. He died 
in Frederick county, Virginia, on the 12th of September, 1813. 

1. Next to Robert Morris, Mr. Peters was one of the most efficiert men rf 1he Kevolutirr, in piovidirff 
the "ways and means" of carrying oi 1h3 war. In the Summt"- of 1781, Washirpton prepaitd (oaltrck 
the British in New York, and was expecting: the aid of Count De (Jiasi-e, with his squadion of Fiench 
ships of war. He received notice that De Grasse's aid conld rot be given. Wafhirgtor was greatl.y 
disappointed, but instantly he conceived the expedition to Virginia, which resulted in Ihecapluie cf 
Cornwallis. Peters and Morris were then both in Washinerton's camp, on the Iludson. At the mrniert 
when he conceived«the Virginia expedition, he turned to Peters, and snid, "What can yon do for me .' ' 
"With money, everything — without it, nothing," Peters replied, at the same time castirg Pn arxirus 
look tow :rd Morris, the great financier. "Let me know tlie sura yon desire," said Morris. Before 
noon Wasnington had completed his plans and estimates. Morris promised the money, and raised it 
upon his individual security. 

2, He endeavored to procure a vote in the convention, authorizing amendments to be submitted by the 
State conventions, and to be finally decided on by another general convention. This proposition was 
rejected. 



JOHN JAY. 



171 




.J^^y. 




. JOHN JAY. 

AMONG the many tiiousands of the Huguenots of France who fled to England 
and America toward the close of the seventeenth century, to escape fiery 
persecutions, was Augustus Jay, a young merchant. He landed at Charleston, 
in South Carolina, but soon proceeded northward, and settled in the city of Nev/ 
York. There he married the daughter of Balthazar Bayard, one of the refugec3 
who came with the New Rochelle colony/ Tliese were the grand-parents of 
John Jav, the venerated American patriot and statesman. He was born in the 
c'ty of New York, on the 12th of December, 1745. At eight years of age ho 
was placed in a boarding school at New Rochelle, and at fourteen he entered 
King's (now Columbia) College, as a student. He was an apt scholar, and gave 
early pro-jjises of his subsequent brilliant career. He was graduated in 1764, 
bearing th? highest honors of the college, and commenced the study of law 
under Benjamin Kissam. He was admitted to the bar in 1763, and ascended 
rapidly to eminence in his profession. In 1774, he was married to the daughter 
of that sturdy patriot, William Livingston (afterward governor of New Jersey), 
and entered 'the political field, with great ardor, as the champion of popular 



1. See sketch of Jacob I.eisler. 



172 JOHN JAY. 



rights. He was one of the most prominent members of the New York committeo 
of correspondence, in the Spring of 1774, and'in September following, he took a 
seat in the first Continental Congress. He was the youngest member of that 
body, being less than twenty-nine years of age, and he was the latest survivor. 
His genius as a statesman was exhibited in the Address to the People of Great 
Britain, put forth by Congress. Jefifbrson, ignorant of its authorship, said, " It 
is the production of the finest pen in America." From that time Mr. Jay was 
identified with most of the important civil measures in his native State ; and ho 
also performed much duty in the Continental Congress, until the Summer of 
17 7G, when all his energies were devoted to public business in New York. 
"With tongue, pen, and hand, he was indefatigable ; and as a member of tho 
convention at Kingston, in the Spring of 1777, he was chosen to draft a Stato 
Constitution. Under that instrument he was appointed chief justice of Nev/ 
York, and held his first term at Kingston, in September, 1777. He was an 
efficient meml3cr of tho Council of Safety, appointed to act in place of the legis- 
lature, when not in session. In the Autumn of 1778, ho was again elected to 
Congress, and three days after taking his seat there, ho was chosen its jjresident. 
He filled tho chair with dignity and vigor, until September, 1779, when he was 
appointed minister to Spain to obtain the acknowledgment of tho independence 
of the United States, to form a treaty of alliance, and to borrow money. Wo 
cannot oven refer to his numerous and efiQcient diplomatic services from that 
time until 1782, when he was appointed one of the commissioners for negotiating 
a peace with Great Britain. In all of them he exhibited consummate skill and 
statesmanship ; and to his vigilance we are indebted for advantages obtained by 
the treaty, of which tho artful French minister attempted to deprive us. Ho 
signed the preliminary treaty, in November, 1782, with Adams, Franklin, and 
Laurens, and the following year ho affixed his signature to the definitive 
treaty. 

Mr. Jay returned to the United States, in July, 1784, and immediately entered 
upon the duties of chief of the foreign department of the government, to which 
Jie was chosen before his arrival. He occupied tliat station until the new or- 
ganization of government under tho Federal Constitution, when ho was appointed 
the first chief justice of the United States. He was a zealous advocate of tho 
Constitution, with his pen, ' and in tho verbal debates in tho State convention 
called to consider it. In 1794, Mr. Jay was appointed an envoy extraordinary to 
negotiate a commercial treaty, and settle some disputes between the United States 
and Great Britain. The treaty was not satisfactory to a great portion of his coun- 
trymen, and as it also offended France and the "French party" here, intense ex- 
citement prevailed throughout the country. Yet he was sustained, and on his 
return home, in 1795, he found the office of governor of his native State awaiting 
him. He was chief magistrate of New York until 1801, when he withdrew from 
public life to enjoy repose at his beautiful seat at Bedford, in "Westchester county, 
although he was then only fifty-six years of age. He succeeded Elias Boudinot 
as president of the American Bible Society, and he was a generous patron of 
every moral and religious enterprise. Greatly beloved by all his friends, and 
respected for his many virtues by his political enemies, that patriarch of tho 
Republic went peacefully to his rest, on the l7th of May, 1829, in the eighty- 
fourth year of his age. 

1. He was a colleague with Madison and Ilamilton, in writing the series of papers known, in the 
collected form, as The Federalist. In that labor he was interrupted, for some time, on account of a 
severe wound wi the head, from a stone, hurled during a riot iu New York, known as The Doctor »> 
Uob. 



ROBEET HO^VE. 173 



ROBERT HOWE. 

1) EC AUSE of the excess of their patriotic zeal, Samuel Adams and John Han- 
) cock, of Massachusetts, wore denounced as arch-rebels, and were excluded 
from the offered advantages of a general amnesty. In like manner, Sir Henry 
Clinton denounced Robert Howe and Cornelius Harnett, of the Cape Fear region, 
in North Carolina, in the Spring of 1776, and they were honored with the ban 
of outlawry because of their patriotism. Howe was born in Brunswick, North 
Carolina, but, strange to say, history bears no record of his private life, and both 
it and tradition are silent respecting the time of his birth and his death, ^\hcn 
Josiah Quincy was in Wilmington, in 1773, he made the acquaintance of Mr. 
Howe, and said in a letter, descriptive of an evening spent in political discussion: 
"Robert Howe, Esq., Harnett, and myself^ made the social triumvirate of the 
evening." So bitter were the Tories against Howe, tiiat his property was several 
times injured; and when Clinton appeared in the Cape Fear region, early in 1776, 
ne sent Cornwallis, with nine hundred men, to indulge his petty spite by ravaging 
that patriot's plantation, near old Brunswick village. 

Howe was appointed colonel of the first North Carolina regiment, in 1775, 
and in December of that year, he joined Woodford, of Virginia, at Norfolk, in 
opposition to Governor Dunmore and his motley army.' For his gallantry tliere, 
Congress appointed him a brigadier in the Continental army, and ordered him 
to Virginia. He was with the army, at the North, during portions of 1776 and 
1777 ; and in the Spring of 1778, he was promoted to major-general, and placed 
in chief command of tlie Southern army. At his head-quarters at Savannah, 
he planned a campaign against the British and Tories in Florida, in the Summer 
of 1778. It foiled in its execution: and at the close of that year, he was driven 
from Savannah, by a British force under lieutenant-colonel Campbell. These 
reverses caused him to be censured unjustly;^ and when General Lincoln 
took command of the Soutlicrn army, Howe attached himself to that of the 
northern department, the following year. He coiiperated with Wayne in his 
attack upon Stony Point, on the Hudson, in 1779. He was on duty in the 
vicinity of West Point and the Hudson Highlands from that time until near the 
close of the war. Washington appointed him, in two instances, to discharge 
the important duty of quelling a mutiny, first in the New Jersey line, and then 
in that of Pennsylvania. He always had the unbounded confidence of the com- 
mander-in-chief Though always a very useful officer, Howe never became 
distinguished for any great achievement. Like the actions of General Heath 
and many others, his line of duty lay in the useful rather than the hrilliant — 
their military history is an epic, not an epigram. 



1. Dunmore, the royal governor of Virginia, having been driven from Williamsburg, by the people, 
commence 1 a depredatory warfare upon the coast of that State. His force consisted of Tory refugees 
and negroes, yet, with the aid of some British ships, he succeeded in burning Norfolk, on the 1st of 
January, 1776. 

2. Among those who raised their voice against General Howe, was Christopher Gadsden, of Charles- 
ion. Howe required him to deny or retract. Gadsden would do neither, and a duel ensued. All (he 
damage sustained by the parties, in Ihe fight, was a scratch upon Gadsden's ear, by Howe's ball. Major 
Andre wrote a humorous account of the duel, in eighteen stanzas, to the tune of I'anlcec Doodle. He 
Boncludes by saying : 

" Such honor did they both display. 
They highly were commended, 
And thus, in short, this gallant fiay, 
Without mischance, was ended. 

No fresh dispute, we may suppose, 

Will e'er by them be started ; 
And now the chiefs, no longer foes, 

Shook hands, and so they parted." 



17-1 



EDWARD LIVINGSTON. 




EDWARD LIVINGSTON. 

THE Livingston family in America, an off-shoot of a stock noted among th© 
Seotcli nobility of Queen Mary's time, ' has always been remarkable for fine 
specimens of talent, pubhc spirit, and genuine patriotism. Among the later 
members. Edward Livingston appears conspicuous as a statesman and jurist. 
He was truly "to the manor born," for his birth occurred at Clermont, Columbia 
county, New York, on the feudal estate known as Livingstones Manor^ in the 
year 1764. He was at school in Kingston, Ulster county, when that village was 
burned by the British, in 1777, and two years afterward he entered Princeton 
College, and pursued his studies in the midst of alarms and interruptions incident 
to the war then in progress. He graduated, in 1781, with only three others. 
Two of these were associated with him, thirteen years afterward, as members 
of the House of Representatives, at Washington. He studied law under Chan- 
cellor Lansing, ^at Albany, and was admitted to the bar in 1785. 

Mr. Livingston was called into public life, in 1794, by being elected a repre- 
sentative of the counties of New York, Queen's, and Richmond, in the Federal 
Congress, where he soon became a distinguished leader of the Republican party. 



1. See sketch of Robert R. Livingston. 



WILLIAM PllESCOTT. 175 



lie maintained a seat there until 1801, when he dechncd a reOlecti^n, and resumed 
the practice of his profession. President Jefierson soon afterward appointed him 
United States Attorney for the District of New York, He had filled the office 
with great ability, untU the yellow fever broke out in the city of New York, in 
1803, when he was called to the performance of holier duties. Thousands fled, 
but Edward Livingston remained amid the pestilence, to visit the sick and bury 
the dead. He was finally smitten by the destroyer, but his useful fife was spared. 
His public and private business had suflered greatly, and the unfaithfulness of 
some of those unto whom he had entrusted the performance of public duties, 
placed upon his shoulders almost crushing pecuniary responsibilities. He re- 
signed his office, took up his residence in New Orleans, and by assiduous atten- 
tion to his profession, was enabled to liquidate every debt, with interest. 

When the British attempted the invasion of Louisiana, in 1814, Mr. Livingston 
olFered his services to General Jackson, and they were accepted; and his pen 
v/rote the noble defence of Jackson, when that officer was unjustly arraigned 
before the civil tribunal for alleged military tyranny. Mr. Livingston was the 
principal of a commission appointed to codify the laws of Louisiana ; and ho is 
the sole author of the penal code of that State, adopted in 1824. On the very 
night when the last page of manuscript was prepared for the press, a fire con- 
sumed the whole, and he was two years engaged in reproducing it. That work 
is his noblest and most enduring monument. 

Mr. Livingston was chosen a delegate to the Federal Congress, in 1823; and 
in 1829, the legislature of Louisiana appointed him United States Senator. Ho 
became one of the brightest ornaments of that higher house, but after serving 
two sessions, he was called to the cabinet of President Jackson, as Secretary of 
State. In 1833, ho was appointed minister to France, an office held, thirty 
years before, by his distinguished brother, Robert R. Livingston. His health 
failed soon after his arrival in Paris, and ho returned to America, not, however, 
until he had satisfied his countrymen that he was fully competent to perform 
any duty to which they might call him. Ho was with his relatives in Redhook, 
Dutchess county. New York, when, on a bright morning in May (23d), 1837, the 
spirit of this laborious public servant departed for the land of rest. 



WILLIAM PRESCOTT. 

HISTORIANS have disputed concerning the chief command at the earliest 
regular battle of the Revolution, known as that of "Bunker's Hill," some 
awarding that honor to General Israel Putnam, and others to Colonel William 
Prescott. Documentary evidence is conclusive in favor of the claim of Prescott, 
and its justice is not questioned at tlie present day. He was born in Goshen, 
Massachusetts, in 1726. Of his early life we liave no reliable record. His father 
was for some years a member of the Massachusetts council. We first find a 
notice of William's public life, in his commission of lieutenant, under General 
Winslow, in the expedition against Cape Breton, in 1758. There he was dis- 
tinguished for liis bravery. On his return, he left the service, and settled at 
Pepperell, as the inheritor of a large estate. He took quite an active part in the 
popular movements while the Revolution was ripening, and had command of a 
regiment of minute-men, in the Spring of 1775. The events at Lexington and 
Concord called him to the field, and he was very active in assisting General 
Ward in the organization of the impromptu army that gathered around Boston, 
in May and June following. Confidant in his military skill. General Ward 



176 CHARLES WILSON" PEALE. 

solected Colonel Prescott to fortify and garrison Bunker's Hill, and on the even- 
ing of the 16th of June, 1775, he crossed €harlesto\vn Neck, for that purpose, 
with a thousand men, and intrenching tools, after an impressive prayer in their 
behalf was offered up on the green at Cambridge, by President Langdon, of 
Harvard College. Breed's Hill being nearer Boston, Prescott proceeded to for- 
tiiy that, and at early dawn the next morning, the British in the city and on the 
shipping in the harbor, ' were astonished and alarmed by the apparition of a 
strong redoubt, almost finished, in a position which commanded their most im- 
pressible points. In the action that ensued, the following day — the memorable 
1 7th of June — Prescott was chief commander. Putnam was on Bunker's Hill, 
urging forward reinforcements, and General Warren was in the redoubt, as 
volunteer. Though driven from the Charlestown peninsula, the gallant colonel 
wished to attack the conquerors the next day, but was overruled by prudent 
counsellors. 

Colonel Prescott continued under the command of Washington until after the 
battle at White Plains, in the Autumn of the following year; and he served as 
a volunteer under Gates, until the surrender of Burgoyne, in October, 1777. 
After the war, he represented his district in the State legislature, and he was 
acting magistrate of Pcpperell from 1786 until his death. That event occurred 
on the 13th of October, 1795, when he was about sixty-nine years of age. 



CHAKI.ES WILSON PEALE. 

" T)RAY tell me, Mr. Hesselius," said a saddler's apprentice — a handsome 
JL young man of twenty — to an eminent portrait-painter in Annapolis, 
Maryland, as he stood before him with a good specimen of his mechanical skill 
— " pray tell me how you mix such beautiful tints for j^our canvas." That 
saddler's apprentice was Charles Wilson Peale, afterward one of the most eminent 
painters in our country. He was born at Charlestown, Maryland, in 1741, and 
in Annapolis he successively learned the trades of saddler, watch-maker, silver- 
smith, and carver. From the day when he asked Hesselius that important 
question, his artist life began, for the generous painter cordially complied with 
his wishes. Peale studied the art and practised his mechanical trade, until an. 
opportunity offered for him to go to England and place himself under the tutor- 
ship of the great West. He remained with that famous artist during the years 
1770, and 1771, when he returned to America, and practiced his art, as a portrait- 
painter, without a rival for fifteen years. When the Revolution broke out, he 
joined the army, and was at the head of a company in the battles at Trenton, 
Brandy wine, Germantown, and Monmouth. While at VaUej'^ Forge, in the 
Winter of l777-'8, he conceived the grand design of making a gallerj^ of portraits 
of all the distinguished actors in the Revolution, American and foreign, and 
commenced the task with vigor.' In the Spring of 1778, when the army moved, 
he gathered up his art materials, and, at the head of his company, he fought gal- 
lantly at Monmouth. He had commenced a full-length portrait of Washington, 

1. One of the vessels, namel FaJ'-on. anchored within short cannon shot of Breed's Hill, was com- 
manded by Captain Innzee, of the British navy. It is a singular fact in the curious liirtoiy of coin- 
cidences, that William H. Prescott, the eminent historian, and grandson of Colonel William Prescott, 
married a grand-daughter of Captain liinzee. The swords used by Colonel Prescott and ('aptain Linzee, 
at the time of the battle on Breed's Hill, are crossed in a conspicuous place in the library of the His- 
torian. . . 

1. He also painted many in miniature, some of which I have seen in the possession of his son, the late Titian 
R. Peale. 



JONATHAN EDWARDS. 177 



at Yalley Forge ; after the Monmouth battle, he had another sitting, and at 
Princeton he completed it.' Mr."Peale paid much attention to the preservation 
of animals after death, and possessed a decided antiquarian taste. After tho 
war, he opened a picture gallery, for exhibition, in Philadelphia, and then estab- 
lished a museum of Natural History and miscellaneous curiosities. He also 
practiced dentristry, invented machinery, and in various ways was one of tho 
most active and industrious of men. He lectured on Natural History, and was 
a zealous supporter of the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. He lived tem- 
perately and frugally, and practiced his art in colors when past eighty years of 
age.'- He died in February, 1827, at the age of almost eiglity-six years. His 
son, Rembrandt Peale, a worthy successor of his father in tho line of art, is yet 
[1855] living, in Philadelphia, at the ago of seventy-six years. 



JONATHAN EDWARDS. 

THE most acute metaphysician and sound theologian which our country has 
yet produced, was Jonathan Edwards, who was born at East Windsor, 
Connecticut, on the 5th of October, 1703. The remarkable analytical powers of 
his mind were developed in early childhood, and at the age of ten years he read 
with delight the profound essay of Locke on the Human Understanding. A few 
days before the completion of his thirteenth year, ho entered Yale College, as a 
student, and was graduated there before he was seventeen years of age. Ho 
remained in that then infant institution for two years longer, in the eager study 
of theology, preparatory to the assumption of the Christian ministry as his pro- 
fession. He received a license to preach, in the Summer of 1722, and almost 
immediately afterward, ho was selected by several New England ministers to 
preach to a small body of Presbyterians in the city of New York. In 1724, ho 
was appointed a tutor in Yale College, where ho remained until called to a pas- 
toral charge in Northampton, Hassacliusctts, in the Summer of 1726. There ho 
was ordained as a colleague of his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, who, 
for more than fifty years, had been tho pastor of the Congregational church in 
that town. That continued to be the home-field of labor, of Mr. Edwards, for 
twenty-three years, when an increasing dislike of his pure church discipline 
alienated his people from him, and, in June, 1750, ho was dismissed by an ec- 
clesiastical council.'^ 

In 1751, Mr. Edwards was appointed a missionary to the Stockbridgo Indians, 
in Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and in that field he labored for about six 
years. His duties being comparatively light, ho devoted much of his time to 
theological and metaphysical studies, and in that comparative retirement ho 
wrote his great work on The Freedom of the Will, which has been considered by 

1. That portrait, having Nassau Hall, at Piincefon, for a bnck-pround, is in Ihc g.illery cf the Nationsl 
Institute, at Washington city. When the Americans, under Washington, drove the British out of Nassr.u 
Hall, on the morning of the 2d of Jnnuary, 1777, they sent a cannon ball into the building, -which 
destroyed a portrait of King George. Washington presented the college with a sum of money, because 
cif the damage done to the building. The Faculty employed Peale to paint a full-length portrait of tho 
S:reat Patriot, and placed it in the frame occupied bv that of the king, where it yet remains. 

2. I have seen a full-length portrait of himself, which he painted at (he age of eighty. In October, 
15.54, all of his paintings remaining in the museum at Philadelphia, were sold at auction. Many of them 
■^I'l^e purchased by the City Council, and now decorate the walls of Independence Hall. 

3._ Mr. Edwards had been informed of immoralities in which many of the young people of his congre- 
gation indulged, and he thought the matter ought to be inquired into. The church readily favored his 
views, but when it was found that fhfi accused persons belonged to some of the wealthiest and most 
influential families in (he place, it w.is impo'^vible (o proceed with the inquiry. The conscientious pastor 
did not swerve from duty, but (ho failure of his a(tempt to correct the morals of the young people, 
strengthened their hands. For six years before his dismissal he fought the enemy niaufully. 

12 



178 



JONATHAN EDWArD.'^. 




^^r 




^^^^oy^^ X^ cY^^Uy^'-^rc^^ ^ 



the most learned men in Europe and America., to be one cf the ^eatest efforts 
of the human mind. In 1754, a severe illness, and the troubles incident to the 
French and Indian war, then progressing, interrupted his labors, and, beyond 
the efforts of his pen, his field of usefulness was very limited. It was soon en- 
larged. In the Autumn of 1757, his son-in-law. Rev. Aaron Burr, president of 
the college of New Jersey, at Princeton, died, and Mr. Edwards was invited by 
the Trustees of that institution to take his place. lie was formally elected 
president, toward the close of September, 1757. He reluctantly accepted tho 
call, for ho knew there were more delights to himself in the quiet pursuits in 
which ho was engaged, than in the duties of such official station, and he re- 
garded his labors with his pen as more useful than any others in which he might 
engage at that time of life. He was inaugurated in Eebruary, 1758. Five 
weeks afterward, that great and good man was laid in the grave. The small- 
pox was prevalent in Princeton at the time of his arrival, and a skilful physician 
was brought from Philadelphia to inoculate' President Edwards and his "family. 
Ho seemed to do well, but when all danger appeared to be over, a secondary 
fever supen^ened, his throat became so obstructed that medicines could not be 
swallowed, and the disease, gathering increased strength, terminated his life on 
the 22d of March, 1758, when he was in the fifty-fifth year of his age. The 

1. See Note 2, page 61. 



JOHN WITHERSPOON. 179 



published theological writings of President Edwards are voluminous, and are 
ranked among the most valuable uninspired contributions to religious literature, 
of any ao:e. 



JOHN WITHERSPOON. 

IN the family circle, the temple of worship, the hall of learning,, and the forum 
of legislation, few men ever performed their whole duty more faithfully than 
did John Witherspoon, of New Jersey, in whose veins ran the blood of the great 
Scottish reformer, John Knox. He was born in the parish of Tester, near 
Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 5th of February, 1722. His father was a Scottish 
minister, and the loveliness of his mind and temper was transmitted to his son. 
He educated the intellectual and moral fxculties of that promising boy with the 
greatest care, for he designed him for that gospel ministry which he afterward 
adorned. At the age of fourteen years he was placed in the University of 
Edinburgh, where he became a close student, especially of sacred literature. 
He went through a regular course of theological studies, and at the age of 
twenty-two he was graduated, with a license to preach. He accepted a call to 
Beith, in the west of Scotland; and in 1745, while, with some others, he was 
gazing upon the battle cf Falkirk, where the troops of the Scotch Pretender to 
the throne of England' were victorious, he was made a prisoner, and was con- 
fined in the castle of Donne, for some time. He afterward took charge of a 
parish in Paisley; and the fame of his learning and piety caused him to receive 
invitations to settle in Dundee, Dublin, and Rotterdam in Holland. In 1766, 
the trustees of the College of New Jersey, at Princeton, invited him to accept 
the presidency of that institution, and through the influence of Richard Stockton 
(afterward Witherspoon's colleague in the Continental Ccngrcss), then in Scot- 
land, he was persuaded to accept the office. He came to America, in 1768, was 
inaugurated in August of that year, and under his efficient administration the 
affairs of the college prospered wonderfully. Its usefulness had been greatly 
impaired by party feuds ; these were soon healed, and that seminary, which 
seemed past resuscitation, was becoming one of the most flourishing in the land, 
when the blight of the Revolution fell upon it. Its pupils were then scattered, 
its doors were closed, and early in 1776, Doctor "Witherspoon employed his 
talents and influence in another field of usefulness. He j^ssisted in forming a 
republican constitution for New Jersey, and in June he was elected to a seat in 
the Continental Congress, where he nobly advocated independence, and signed 
his name to tlie Declaration thereof '2 Ho was a faithful member gf Congress 
until 1782, and took a conspicuous part in military rnd financial matters. In 
1783, he endeavored to revive the prostrated College at Princeton, and found 
an efficient co-worker in his son-in-law, Vice-President Smith. .Contrary to the 
dictates of his own judgment. Dr. "Witherspoon went to Great Britain for pecu- 
niary aid to the institution, and he collected scarcely enough to pay the expenses 
of the journey. He came back with a heavy heart but determined purpose, and 
labored on faithfully in the pulpit and in the college, while his powers of life 
remained active. About two years before his death he lost his eye-sight, yet he 
maintained his place in his pulpit with unabated zeal, until a few weeks before 
his departure. His useful life closed on the 10th of November, 1794, at the age 
of almost seventy-three years. 

1. Charles Edward, grandson of James the Second, who was dethroned in 1688. 

2. In the course of debate on the subject of independence, John Dickenson, of Pennsylvania, ventured 
to assert that the people were not " ripe for a declaraiion of independence." Doctor Witherspoon 
warmly observed, " In my judgment, sir, we are not only lipe. but rotting." 



180 EICHARD HENDERSON. 



RICHARD HENDERSON. 

ALTHOUGH Daniel Boone may be considered the first thorough explorer of 
the wilderness of Kentucky, and James Harrod built tlie first log-house in 
all that beautiful land, yet Colonel Richard Henderson must be regarded, 2)olit- 
icalhj, as the father of that commonwealth. He was a native of Virginia. He 
was born in Hanover county, on the 20th of April, 1735, His father emigrated 
to Granville county, No.th Carolina, in 1745, and being appointed sheriff of 
that district, Richard had an opportunity of learning many useful lessons in mat- 
ters pertaining to law. He prepared himself for the legal profession, arose rap- 
idly to the higliest rank, accumulated a competent fortune, and, when the in- 
surrectionary movements in that section of the count}-, known as the Regulator 
Wdir^^ occurred, he was a jadgo of t!ic superior coort. As such, he was driven 
from the banch at Hillsborough, by the Regulators, in the Autumn of 1771, and 
the courts of justice, in that region, were closed. He was an ambitious and 
ostentatious man. By extensivj speculations, at about this time, he had become 
somewhat embarrassed in pecuniary aftairs, and had gained the ill-will of the 
coLuaion people. Bold, ardent, and adventurous, he resolved to go beyond the 
mountains, and there, in the boautifal country traversed by Boone, he commenced 
a scheme of land speculation, in 1774, more extensive than any known in the 
history of our country. He formed a company, of which ho was chosen pres- 
ident, and by a treaty held at Wataga with the heads of the Cherokee nation, 
he purchased the whole land lying between the Cumberland river and niountains, 
an 1 the Kentucky river, which compriced more than one-half of the present 
State of Kentucky. Henderson took possession of the country in the name of 
the company, in the Spring of 1775. GTovernor Martin, of North Carolina, pro- 
claimed the purchase to bo illegal. The legislature of Virginia did the same, 
bat Judge Henderson paid no regard to their falminations against him, and pro- 
ceeded to establish a proprietary government, in imitation of the old colonies. 
Its capital was Boonesborough, and its title was Transylvania. Under a largo 
elm tree near Boone's fort, the first legislature of the new State met on the 23d 
of Miy, 1775.- Tlie session was opened with prayer by the Rev. John Lythe; 
and Colonel Henderson in his verbal "message" as ijresident, expressed the 
very essence of republican government, when he said, "If any doubts remain 
among you, with respect to the force and efQciency of whatever laws you now 
or hereafter make, be pleased to consider that all pov^er is originally in the 
people ; make it their interest, therefore, by impartial and beneficent laws, and 
you may be sure of their inclination to see them enforced." 

The State of Transylvania as an independent republic did not long exist, 
fer Virginia and Carolina took efficient means to destroy it. Tlio treaty with 
the Cherokees, ^and the purchase of their lands, were declared null. Yet they 
did not deprive the company of all advantages. North Carolina and Virginia 
each granted to them two hundred thousand acres. Relinquishing all political 
claims, Judge Henderson opened a land office on the site of Nashville, in 1779, 
for the sale of this legally-granted domain. The following Summer he returned 
to Oranville county, and sought repose in the bosom of his family. Old diffi- 
culties were forgotten, for the great question of independence was then in process 

1. See note on page 97 \ also sketch of John Ashe. 

2. It was composed of Squire Boone, Daniel Boone, William Coke, Samuel Henderson, Richard Moore, 
Richard Calloway, Thomas Slaughter, John Lythe, Valentine Hammond, James Douglas, James Har- 
rod, Nathan Hammond, Isaac Hite, Azariah Davis, John Todd, Alexander S. Dandridge, Jolin Floyd, 
and Samuel Wood. Thomas Slaughter was chosen chairman, Maihew Jowett clerk, and John Lythe 
•haplaiu. 



ALEXANDER WILSON. 181 

of solution by the whole people of the newly-proclaimed Union. Judge Hen- 
derson did not take part in public affairs, but lived on in quiet until the 30th of 
January, 1785, when he died at the age of fifty years. Henderson county, 
Kentucky, was named in his honor. 



ALEXANDER WILSON. 

WE may justly claim Alexander Wilson as an American, though born in 
North Britain, for here the genius which has made him world-renowned, 
as The American Ornithologist, was developed, and cultivated, and bore fruit. 
He was born in Paisley, Scotland, and in a grammar school, in that large town, 
he acquired a rudimental knowledge of the classics. His father designed him 
for the clerical profession, but the expansive mind of the youth would not allow 
him to be a sectarian, and the scheme was abandoned. From earliest boyhood 
he loved the fields and the sky ; and ho regarded the towering mountains and 
grand old forests as the most appropriate temples Avherein man should worship 
the Creator of all. Pecuniary misfortune compelled his father to suspend Alex- 
ander's literary pursuits, on which he had entered with enthusiasm, and finally 
the necessity of learning some mechanical trade seemed imperative. The ardent 
youth could not brook the idea of having his pov/ers confined to such a narrow 
sphere, for he felt a great soul stirring within ; yet ho reverently bent his in- 
clinations to his f ither's wishes. I*]very leisure moment, however, was employed 
in study, and in the midst of his mechanical employment, he composed articles, 
in prose and verse, which attracted public attention, before ho was nineteen 
years of age. Ho soon became the life of a select literary circle, yet his daily 
avocations, so repugnant to his nature, burdened his spirit with gloom. He sav/ 
no chance for expansion in his native country; and in 1794. he embarked for 
America, to profit by the free ail ^nd as free institutions. For more than a 
dozen j^ears afterward he was engaged in the humble but honoi*able employment 
of a district school teacher. His lot seemed a hard one, but he found consolation 
in poetry, music, and his favorite study of birds. The latter became a passion 
witlijiim, and he had the good fortune, at length, to form an acquaintance with 
William Bartram, of Philadelpliia, the celebrated American Botanist.' From 
him he obtained a standard work on ornithology, the perusal of which was the 
commencement of a new era in Wilson's life. He found the work quite inac- 
curate in many particulars concerning the birds of the United States, and he 
formed the idea of making a complete system of American Ornithology. He at 
once applied himself successfully to the study- of drawing and coloring from 
nature. At about this time, he became clerk to a bookseller in Philadelphia, 
with a liberal salary, and to him ho disclosed his scheme of a work on American 
birds. Mr. Bradford was delighted with the idea, and at once gave Wilson every 
facility for preparing that magnificent work. The American Ornithology, in seven 
volumes, which appeared in 1808. Every portion of our country, from the 
Atlantic to the Mississippi, and from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, 
was traversed by Wilson, all alone, with the sublime ardor of a man conscious 
of performing a great work. His splendid volumes at once attracted the earnest 
attention of the learned in both hemispheres, and fame and fortune awaited him. 
But he did not live long to enjoy either. The hardships and privations to which 
lie had been exposed, impaired a never rugged constitution, and on the 23d of 
August, 1813, he died, peacefully, at Philadelphia, when at the age of about 
forty years. ^ ^^^^^ 

1. See sketch of Bartram. 



182 



RUrUS PUTNAM. 




'^ty^i^^:^ 




RUFUS PUTNAM. 

THE name of Putnam is suggestive of bold daring border exploits, and true 
patriotism, notwithstanding of the eighty males of that name, living in 
America, in 1740, only two (Israel and Rufus) appear conspicuous in our country's 
annals. Rufus was born at Sufton, Worcester county, Massachusetts, on the 
9th of April, 1738. On the death of his father, in 1745, he went to live with 
his maternal grandfather, in Danvers, where he attended a district school for 
two years. His mother married again, and Rufus lived with her until his step- 
fatlier died, in 1753. That illiterate man denied the lad all opportunities for 
education. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to a mill-wright. At that 
time the French and Indian war was kindling brightly, and the campaign of 
P.raddock, and the bold exploits of his kinsman, Israel, warmed a martial spirit 
within him. At the age of nineteen years he entered the provincial army as a 
private soldier; and he mentions, in his journal, the note-worthy fact, that the 
captain of his company' prayed with the men every night and morning during 
the campaign. He remained in service until 1761, when he resumed his em- 

1. Captain Ebenezer T.earned, who was a colonel in the army under General Gates at the capture ol 
Burgoyne, in 1777, and afterward a brigadier in the Continental army. 



MESHECH WEARE. 183 



ploynients of mill-building and farming. Having acquired a knowledge of sur- 
veying, lie practiced it successfully for several years before the clarion of tho 
Revolution called him again to the Held. Ho was one of the military land com- 
pany, who sent General Lyman to > ngland, in 1763 ;' and 17*73, ho accompanied 
Colonel Israel Putnam and others to the '* Yazoo country." 

Mr. Patnam joined the revolutionary army at Cambridge, in 1775, and there 
his knowledge of surveying was brought into requisition. Ho assisted cEBciently 
in the construction of those works on Dorchester Heights, which caused the 
British to prepare for leaving Boston. After that, lie was employed elsewhere 
in the engiaeering department; and in August, 1776, he was appointed by 
Congress, an engineer, with the rank of colonel. In February, 1778, he succeeded 
Colo'nel Greaton in command of troops in the northern department, and during 
the remainder of the war ho was actively connected with the cngmeering corps 
of the army. On tho 8th of January, 1783, he was commissioned a brigadier- 
general in the Contincntnl army, but peace was novvr exchanging the olive 
branch for the laurel and tho palin, and he soon afterward retired to his farm. 

From 1783 to 1788, he was engaged in organizing a company for emigrating 
to and settling in the Ohio country, and thither he went, as the general agent, in 
the Spring of 1788. He was accompanied by about forty scttlei'S. They pitched 
their tents at the mouth of the Muskingum river, formed a settlement there, and 
called it Marietta. Suspecting hostility on the part of tho neighboring Indians, 
he built a fort near by, and called it Campus Martius. That year they planted 
one hundred and thirty acres of corn. This was tho beginning of that tide of 
emigration to Ohio which soon flowed so deep and broad; and General Putnam 
lived to see a flourishing State organized, and having, at the time of his death, 
seventy counties, and three-quarters of a million of inhabitants. In 1789, Pres- 
ident VVashingtoa appointed him judge of tho supreme court of the North-west 
Te'Titory; and, in 1792, he was appointed a brigadier, under General Wayne. 
In 1796, he was made surveyor-general of the United States, and held that offico 
until after the accession of Mr. Jefferson to the presidency. He was a membe; 
of the convention that framed a constitution for the State of Ohio, in 1802, am 
this was his last public service of much moment. He made Marietta liis resid 
ence, and enjoyed the repose of private life until the first day of May, 1824- 
when he died. No individual did more for securing the benefits to bo derived 
from the conquests of George Rogers Clarke north of the Ohio,^ than General 
Rufas Putnam, and he has been justly styled the Father of Ohio. 



H-^ 



MESHECH WE ARE. 

E dared to love his country and be poor," was the epigraraatic encomium 



"Hampshire, by one who knew and estimated his worth. He was not possessed 
of brilliant genius, superior intellect, nor extraordinary abilities of any kind, but 
^xhibited a happy combination of good sense, stern integrity, pure heart, and 
clear intelligence. He was precisely the man for the place and times in which 
his lot was cast. Mr. Weare was a native of Hampton, New Hampshire, where 
he was born in 1714. He was educated at Harvard College, where he was 
graduated in 1735. In the disputes between Governor Wentworth and the 

1. See sketch of General Lyman. 2. See sketch of George Rogers Clarke. 



184 FRANCIS MAEION. 



Colonial Assembly, Mr. Weare, (for a number of years a member of that body), 
was always found on tbo side of the peoplot In 1752, ho was chosen Speaker 
of the house. When, in 1754, delegates from the several colonics assembled at 
Albany to discuss plans for mutual defence, and to consider the expediency of a 
political union, Mr. Wearo represented Now Hampshire in that body, and warmly 
approved a plan of confederation, proposed Ly Dr. Franklin. And when, ten 
years later, the disputes between the colonics and Great Britain grew warm, Mr. 
"Weare was a staunch supporter of all republican measures. 

In January, 1776, a hastily-prepared Constitution went into operation in New 
Hampshire, and Mr. "Weare was chosen to an office equivalent to that of gover- 
nor of the embryo State. He was also appointed chief justice of the supremo 
court ; and in such high estimation was he held by his fellow-citizens, that they 
virtually invested him with dictatorial prerogatives, for he wielded the powers 
of the highest offices in their gift, legislative, executive, and judicial. In 1779, 
a now Constitution was framed by a convention, of which John Langdon was 
president, but the people rejected it. Again, in 1784, a convention framed a 
Constitution, and it was accepted. Again, Mcshech Woarc, tlie faithful servant 
of the people, was elected chief magistrate, but the duties of public life, combin- 
ing with the decay of age, had now produced great feebleness in his vital powers, 
and before the expiration of the year, he was compelled to resign the office 
which he had held with so much dignity for nine j^cars. Ho retired to private 
life, a worn out public servant, and died at Hampton Falls, on the 15th of Jan- 
uary, 1786, at the age of seventy-two years. His voluminous papers, comprised 
in several large manuscript volumes, are now in the custody of the New York 
Historical Society. 



FRANCIS MARION. 

THERE is scarcely a plantation within thirty miles of the banks of the Con- 
garee and Santee, from Columbia to the sea, that has not some local tradi- 
tion of the presence of Marion, the great partisan leader in South Carolina during 
the Revolution. He was a descendant of one of the Huguenots who fled from 
France toward the close of the seventeenth century, and was born at Winyaw, 
near Georgetown, South Carolina, in 1732. His infancy gave no promise of 
mature life, much less of greatness in achievements; for, according to Weems, 
he was as "small as a New England lobster, at his birth, and might have been 
put into a quart pot." His education was very limited, and, except a few 
months at sea, while a youth, his life was spent in agricultural pursuits, until 
his twenty-seventh year. Then the hostihties of the Indians on the western 
frontiers called the young men of the Carolinas to arms, and Marion became a 
soldier, with Moultrie and others, who afterward fought nobly for freedom. In 
the wild Cherokee country he obtained great applause for his bravery ; and 
when the Revolution broke out, ho was offered a captain's commission, which 
he accepted. He was successful in the recruiting service, early in 1776; and 
during the attack on Charleston, in the Summer of that year, ho fought bravely 
under Moultrie, in the Palmeto fort, in the harbor. He was afterward engaged 
in the contest at Savannah, and was in Charleston while the siege of that city, 
by the British, in the Spring of 1789, was progressing. Disabled by an accident,' 

1. Marion was dining with some friends at a house in Tradd Street, Chailesfon, when, on an attempt 
being made to cause him to drinlt wine contrary lo his practice and desire, he leaped from a window, 
and sprained his ankle. The Americans yet kept the country toward the Santee, open, and Marion was 
conveyed to his home. 



FRANCIS MAEION". 



185 




]ie loft the city before its surrender, and made his way home, where he remained 
Tintil just before the defeat of Gates near Camden, in August following. Then, 
Dotwithstanding he was quite lame, he mounted his horse, collected a score of 
volunteers, and offered his services to Gates. They were not readily accepted 
by that proud general, because of the uncouth appearance of the men.i Soon 
afterward, being called to the command of the militia of the "Williamsburg Dis- 
trict, in the vicinity of the Black and Podoe rivers, ho formed his famous Brigade, 
with which he performed such wondrous feats during the remainder of the war. 
I need not stop to detail his exp'oits durins: the two years succeeding the forma- 
tion of his brigade, for tliey are, or ought to be. familiar to every American 
reader, young or old. Suffice it to sav, that to Marion's Brif/ade, more than to 
any other corps in the South, the credit of the expulsion of the British from the 
Carolinas and Georgia, is due; and General Greene regarded him as his strong 
right arm, especially after the siege of Ninety-Six, in the Summer of 1781. 



£. According to Colonel Williams, they must have appeared worse than FalstafTs " ragged regiment. 



186 RICHAED HENRY LEE. 

Just before the war, Marion had occupied a seat in the legislature of South 
Carolina, and early in 1782, when that bod/ was reorganized by Governor Rut- 
ledge, he was again elected to the Senate. Circumstances soon called him from 
the council to the field, and he did not relinquish his sword until the British 
evacuated Charleston toward the close of 1782, and the sun of peace arose. 
Then he disbanded his Brigade, and retired to his farm near Eutaw Springs, on 
the Santee. There all was utter desolation ; and at the age of fifty, he com- 
menced the world anew, as a planter, with scarcely money enough to purchase 
utensils for his laborers. An almost sinecure ofQce — commander of Fort John- 
son, in Charleston harbor — was created for him, and the emoluments were of 
essential service to the veteran. At length a Desdemonia, enamored of the hero 
because of his exploits, oflered him her hand and fortune, through the kind 
mediation of friends. She was a Huguenot maiden of forty years, comely and 
rich. The hitherto invincible soldier was conquered, and his home at Pond 
Bluflf was made happy during the remainder of his life, by a loving wife and the 
means for dispensing a generous hospitahty to his friends. He enjoyed these 
pleasures for about- ten years, alternating them occasionally with legislative 
duties, and then went to his rest, without having a child to perpetuate his name 
or blood. He died on the 29th of February, 1795, at the age of about sixty- 
three years, and was buried in the church-yard at Belle Isle, where a neat marble 
slab denotes the resting-place of his remains. 



RICHAUD HENRY LEE. 

IN the midst of the doubt, and dread, and hesitation, which for twenty 
had brooded over the Continental Congress, after the first step had been 
taken in the direction of political independence of Great Britain, a clear, musical 
voice was heard uttering a resolution, " That these united colonies are, and of 
right ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all 
allegiance to the British Crown ; and that all political connection between them 
and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." It was 
the voice of Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia. He was a scion of 
one of the early cavalier families of tliat State, and was born at Stratford, in 
Westmoreland county, on the 20th of January, 1732. According to the fashion 
of thit time, his father sent him to England to be educated. He was in a school 
at Wakefield, in Yorkshire, for several years, where he was a thoughtful student, 
and lover of ancient classic and historical hterature. At the age of nineteen 
years he returned to Yirginia, and his time was spent in atliletic exercises and 
study. He formal a military corps among his youthful companions, was elected 
to the chief command, and first appears in history at the council called at Alex- 
andria, by Braddock, in 1755.' There young Lee appeared and offered the ser- 
vices of himself and volunteers, in the proposed expedition against the French 
and Indians on the Ohio. The proud Braddock refused to accept the services 
of these plain young provincials, and the deeply-mortified Lee returned home 
with his troops. Then was planted in his bosom the first seeds of hatred and 
disgust of the insolence of British officials, and it germinated and bore abundant 
fruit twenty years afterward. 

1. General Braddock called a council of colonial governors, at Alexandria, on the Potomac, to consult 
upon a campaign against the French and Indians. Several of those magistrates, with Admiral Keppel, 
met there, arranged satisfactory plans, and Braddock started on his unfortunat'i march toward the 
Alleghanies. 



JOSIAH QUIIs'-^T, JR. 187 



■ In 1757, Govornor Dinwiddic appointed Mr. Leo a justice of the peace. At 
about tlio same time he was elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses of Vir- 
ginia, though only twenty-five years of ago. Ho was extremely diffident, but 
at times his zeal would master his baslifulncss, and then tliose powers of oratory, 
afterward so conspicuous in the Continental Congress, would beam out in won- 
drous splendor, ilo was one of the earhest opposers of the Stamp Act, and was 
the first man in Virginia to stand forth in public as its avowed opponent. From 
that time until the war broke out, he was a leader among the patriots in his 
State ; and long before the idea became general, he spoke of tho necessity of 
independence. He was a member of the first Continental Congress, in 1774, and 
while in tliat body he was always upon the most important committees. In 
June, 1776, he fearlessly offered the resolution above quoted, and took upon 
himself the fearful responsibility of being branded by the imperial government as 
an arch-traitor.^ After considerable debate, that resolution was made the special 
order of the day for the 2d of July following,'^ and a committee of five were ap- 
pointed to draw up a preamble or declaration, in accordance with it. On the 
day when the resolution to appoint a committee was proposed, Mr. Lee was 
summoned, by express, to his home in Virginia, on account of illness in his 
family, and for that reason he was not a member of that committee. He after- 
ward affixed his signature to the Declaration, and thus became one of the im- 
mortal Fifcy-Six. He was active in Congress, in the Virginia Assembly, or in 
the field at the head of militia, until the close of the war. In 1783, he was again 
elected to Congress, and was chosen president of that body. He was opposed 
to the Federal Constitution, because ho reverenced State rights ; but, like Patrick 
Henry, he yielded cheerful acquiescence when it became the organic law of tho 
Eepubhc. He was clicsen tho first United States Senator, from Virginia, under 
it, and held that office until tho infirmities of premature age compelled him to 
retire to private life, at his beautiful scat at Cliantifiy, in his native count}^ He 
was greatly beloved by his relatives, friends, and tho whole people, and he was 
sincerely mourned by the nation, at his death. Mr. Lee went to his rest on the 
19th of June, 1794, when in the sixty-third year of his age. 



JOSTAH QIJINCY, JR. 

" T ET me tell you one very serious truth, in which we are all agreed; your 
±J countrymen must seal their cause with their blood." So wrote a young 
man of thirty, from London, toward the close of 1774. He was Josiah Quincy, 
junior, grandson of Judge Edmund Quincy, and the child of a wealthy Boston 
merchant. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, on the 2od of February, 
1744. Eagerness for knowledge, and assiduity in study, marked his whole col- 
legiate career in Harvard University; and when he was graduated, in 1763, he 
entered upon the study of the law, under OxenlDridgo Thachcr, of Boston, with 
equal eagerness. After two years' close study, he was admitted to the bar, and 
was soon regarded as one of the most promising young men in the profession. 
His attention was soon drawn to the agitation of the political waters of his 

1. At that time, a son of Mr. Lee was at school at St. Bees, in England. One day, while standing 
near his tutor, a gentleman asked, "What boy is this ?" The professor replied, " lie is the son of Richard 
Henry Lee, of America." Tho gentleman put his hand upon the boy's head, and said, " We shall yet 
see your father's head upon Tower Hill." The boy promptly answered, "You may have it when you 
can get it." That boy was the late Ludwell Lee, Esq., of Virginia. 

2. The resolution was adopted on the 2d of July, but the Declaration was debated until the 4th, and 
then agreed to. 



188 JOSIAH QUINCY, JR. 



country, and as early as 17 G7, he began to write political essays in favor of 
popular liberty. From that time, Otis and Quincy were the boldest denunciators 
of the oppressive measures of Great Britain.* He was the colleague of John 
Adams in defending Captain Preston and others after the "Boston Massacre," in 
17 70, and eloquently pleaded their cause.2 During the three years of compar- 
ative quiet, after that event, he pursued his avocations in the law with great 
assiduity; but early in 1773, a pulmonary disease compelled him to seek relief 
in a warmer climate. He visited Charleston and several places in North Car- 
^ olina, everywhere mingling with the most ardent friends of freedom. ^ On his 
return home he was active in the movements which resulted in the destruction 
of tea in Boston Harbor.^ He wrote several powerful papers, the most important 
of which was signed "Marchmont Nedham." He also published, in 1774, severe 
strictures on the Boston Port Bill,' which included Thoughts on Civil Society and 
a Standing Army. 

For the double purpose of seeking renewed health and to serve his country 
in the dark hour of its trial, he secretly embarked for London, in September, 
1774, and at once obtained interviews with the ministry and the leading men 
of both parties. He attended the debates in parliament, took full notes of all 
current political events, and kept his friends in America advised of all impoitant 
movements in which they were concerned. lie became thoroughly convinced 
of the necessity for his countrymen to prepare for war, and in less than two 
months after his arrival in England, he expressed the sentiment quoted at tho 
opening of this memoir. After becoming thoroughly acquainted with the dis- 
positions and intentions of the king and his ministers, and hopeless of reconcili- 
ation, Mr. Quincy resolved to return home, and, if his health would permit, to 
arouse his countrymen to immediate and powerful action. He embaiked for 
Boston, in March, 1775, with a heart big with revolution, and a brain teeming 
with noble ideas and dreams of the g'orious future of his beloved country. He 
had said to Dr. Franklin, on partinr, "'New England alone can hold out for ages 
against Great Britain, and, if they were firm and united, in seven years they 
would conquer them." But Providence did not permit him to realize any of hia 
aspirations, nor again to set his feet upon his native shores. He was blessed 
with the sight of his dear land, but before the vessel reached the port of Glou- 
cester, the tooth of consumption destroyed the thread of life, and he expired. 
It was on the 26th of April, 1775, when he was about thirty-one years of age. 
His son, then a little child, has erected a noble monument to the memory of hia 
father, by writing and publishing a record of his life. 

1. In ITfF, lie asked, "Shall we hesitate a moment in pveferriiig death fo a miserable existence in 
bondage?" And, in 1770, he boldly said, " I wish to see nij' countrymen _breek_ oK—off forexer / — all 
social intercourse with those whose commerce contaminates, whose luxuries poison, whose avarice is 
insatiable, and whose unnatural oppressions are not to be borne." 

2. Seo note on page 87. 

3. See sketches of Harnett and Howe. 

4. On the day when the destruction of the tea occurred, a great concourse of people were assembled 
at the " Old South Meeting-house," and were harangued by young Quincy. " It is not, Mr. Moderator," 
he said, " the spirit that vapors within these walls, that must stand us in stead. The exertiors of this 
day will call forth events which will make a very difteient spiiit necessary for our salvation. Whoever 
supposes that shouts and hosannahs will terminate the trials of this day, entertains a childish fancy. 
He must be grossly ignorant of the importance and value of the prize for which we contend ; we must 
be equally ignorant of the power of those who have combined against us. We must be blind to that 
malice, inveteracy and insatiable revenge which actuate our enemies, public and private, abroad and in 
our bosoms, to hope that we shall end this controversy without the sliarpest, the shaipest conflicts — to 
flatter ourselves that popular resolves, popular harangues, popular acclamations, and popular vr.ror, 
will vanquish our foes. Let us consider the issue. Let us look to (he end. Let us weigh and contider 
before we advance to those measures which must biing on the most trying and terrible struggle this 
country ever saw." When he concluded, the question was put whether the people would allow the tea 
to be landed. As with one voice, the multitude said, No ! At twilight, a voice in the church gallery 
shouted, " Boston harbor a tea-pot to-night !" A man disguised as an Indian gave a war-whoop, and 
the people rushed to the wharf. A pale moon was shining upon the snow. In a short time three hundred 
and forty-two chests of tea were broke open, and their contents were cast into the water- 

6. See note 2, page 165. 



PHILIP SCHUYLER. 



Ib9 




PHILIP SCHUYLER. 

PURE patriotism, unselfish benevolence, unflinching integrity, and unwavering 
public and private virtue, were the marked characteristics of Philip Schuyler, 
a grandson of the valiant mayor of Albany, in 1690, when the scouts of Fron- 
tenac alarmed all the border settlers of New York, and French and Indians laid 
Scheuectada in ashes. Philip was born at Albany, on the 22d of November, 
1733. He was the oldest child of his parents, and "by the law of primogeniture, 
he inherited his father's real estate. That parent died while Philip was young, 
and he was left to the care of his mother. With that noble generosity which 
marked his career through life, he divided the estate, to which he was entitled, 
equally with his brothers and sisters. At the age of twenty-two years, he en- 
tered the provincial army, and commanded a company under Sir William John- 
son, at Fort Edward and Lake George. He continued in the service until 1758, 
and accompanied the j^oung Lord Howe, as colonel of a regiment, in the expe- 
dition against Ticonderoga and Crown Point. When that nobleman was killed, 



190 JOSEPH WARREN. 



Colonel Schuyler conveyed his body to Albany, for interment.' After the peac& 
in 1763, he was quite active in several civM capacities; and as member of the 
Colonial Assembly of New York, he was marked for his devotion to the cause 
of tlie colonists. He was a member of the second Continental Congress, in 1775, 
and was appointed by that body the third of the four major-generals, under 
"Washington, commissioned for the command of the American army. He took 
command of the Northern Department, and started with a considerable force to 
invade Canada, in the Autumn of 1775. He sickened on Lake Champlain, placed 
the chief command in the hands of his lieutenant, General Montgomery, and re- 
turned to Albany. During the following year ho v.^as active among the Six 
Nations of Indians, and also in perfecting the discipline of his Division of the 
army. In March, 1777, he was superseded by G-eneral Gates, without any good 
reason, but was reinstated in May following. In June, Lurgoyne penetrated 
the northern frontier, and General Schuyler was active in preparations to check 
his invasion. At the moment when all was ready to strike a decisive blow, 
Gates was again placed in command, and unfairly received the laurels of con- 
quest. Schuyler's love for his country was stronger than his resentment, and 
as a simple citizen lie aided the Americans greatly in the accomplishment of the 
victory over Burgoyne, at Saratoga. He demanded and obtained a trial before 
a court of inquiry, and received a highly flattering verdict. Washington then 
urged him to accept mihtary command, but ho preferred to aid his country in a 
less public but not less efficient way. Ho was a member of Congress under the 
first confederation, and after the ratification of the Federal Constitution, the 
legislature of New York chose General Schuyler, with Rufus King, to represent 
that commonwealth in the Senate of the United States. He served until 1791, 
when he was elected to the Senate of his native State. He was again chosen 
United States Senator, in place of Aaron Burr, in 1797, but did not retain his 
seat long, for his health was failing. In 1803, his wife, the companion of all his 
joys and sorrows, died; and, in July, 1804, his spirit was terribly smitten by 
the murder of his accomplished son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton, by the duellist's 
hand. 2 



JOSEPH YV^ARKEN. 

" fiTOT all the havoc and devastation they have made has wounded mo like the 
ll death of Warren," wrote the wife of John Adams three weeks after the 
battle of Bunker Hill. "We want him in the Senate; we want liim in his pro- 
fession ; we want him in the field. We mourn for the citizen, the senator, the 
physician, and the warrior." The death of Joseph Warren was indeed a severe 
blow to tlie patriot cause. He was the son of a Massachusetts farmer, and was 
born in Roxbury, near Boston, in 1740. He was graduated at Harvard College, 
in 1759, and then commenced the study of medicine. Soon after commencing 
its practice, he took a prominent place in the profession, in Boston ; and he had 
few superiors, when inclination called him to participate in the political move- 
ments of the day. Patriotism was a ruling emotion of his heart, and he never 
lacked boldness to express his opinions freely. He was one of the earliest 
members of the association, in Boston, known as So7is of Liberty ; and from 1768 
until the fierce kindling of war on Breed's Hill, he was extremely eflScient in 

1. As an example for his men, Lord Howe had his hair cut sliort, that it might not become wet an<f) 
produce colds in the region of the neck. Many years after the interment of his remains at Albany, the/ 
were removed, and it was found that his hair had grown several inches, and was smooth and i 

2. See sketcn of Alexander Hamilton. 



ZEBULON MONTGOMERY PIKE. 191 



fostering a spirit of rational liberty and independence among the people. His 
suggestive mind planned many daring schemes in secret caucus, and he was 
over ready to lead in the execution of any measures for resisting the encroachments 
of imperial power. Ho delivered the tirst annual oration on the subject of the 
"Boston Massacre," in 1771; and, in 1775, he solicited the honor of performing 
the perilous sorvice again, because some British officers had menaced the life of 
anyone who should attempt it. The " Old South " was crowded, and the aisles, 
stairs, and pulpit, wore filled with British soldiers, full armed. The intrepid 
young orator entered by a window, spoke fearlessly, in the presence of those 
bayonets which seemed alive witli threats, of the early struggles of the colonics 
of New England, and then, in sorrowful tones and deep pathos of expression, 
told of the wrortgs and oppressions under which they were then suflering. Even 
the soldiers wept ; and thus the young hero, firm in tlie faith that "resistance to 
tyrants is obedience to Clod," trium.phod, and fearlessly bearded the lion in his 
den. From that day Gage regarded him as a dangerous n::an. 

When John Hancock went to the Continental Congress, "Warren was chosen 
to fill his place as president of the Massachusetts Provincial Assen:ibly. He held 
that position when the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord occurred ; and 
before and after the events of that day, he was very active, secret and open. 
Four days before the battle of Bunker's Hill, ho was commissioned a major- 
general Ho hastened to Breed's Hill, on the m.emorablc ]7tli of June, 1775, 
and toward the close of the action, placed himself under Colonel Prescott, as a 
volunteer. When the Americans were compelled to retreat, Warren and Pres- 
cott were the last men to leave the redoubt. He had proceeded but a short 
way toward Bunker's Hill, where Putnam was trying to rally the fugitives, when 
a musket bail passed through his head, and killed him instantly. He was left 
on the field. His body was recognised the next day by his intimate acquaint- 
ance, Dr. Jeffries, of the British army, and it was buried where it fell. After 
the British left Boston, in the Spring of 1776, it was taken up, carried to the 
city, and interred with masonic and military honors, beneath St. Paul's church. 
Almost upon the spot where he fell, the great Bunker Hill monument now 
stands, a memorial alike for the noble Warren, and of the deeds which con- 
secrated that eminence. Congress expressed its sorrow by resolutions, and its 
gratitude by ordering that his "eldest son be educated at the expense of the 
United States." Congress also ordered a monument to be erected. It yet re- 
mains to bo done. 



ZKBULON MONTaOMERY PIKE. 

ONE of the earliest explorers of tho wilderness around the head waters of the 
Mississippi, now known as the State of Minnesota, was the brave Pike, 
who died in the hour of victory near York, in Upper Canada, with the captured 
British flag under his head. He was the son of an officer in the United States 
army, and was born at Lamberton, New Jersey, on the 5th of January, 1779. 
He entered the army while yet a mere boy, and his whole life was devoted to 
the military profession. He was early subjected to athletic exercises, and ho 
grew to manhood with a frame of uncommon vigor. His education was neglected, 
but by his own exertions he mastered the Latin, French, and Spanish languages. 
Love of study was a characteristic of his early youth, and he read with avidity 
the few books that fell in his way. Soon after the purchase of Louisiana from 
the. French, in 1803, the United States government determined to explore that 
vast and mostly unknown territory. Under tho enlightened direction of Pres* 



192 DANIEL BOONE. 



ident Jefferson, Captains Lewis and Clarke were sent to explore the Missouri to 
its source, and young Pike was commissioned to make a similar exploration in 
search of the sources of the Mississippi. He left St. Louis, in August, 1805, with 
twenty w.en, and made a most wonderful journey, during eight months and 
twenty days, an account of which was published in an octavo volume.' Soon 
after his return, General Wilkinson selected Pike to command another expedi- 
tion in the interior of Louisiana, in the direction of Northern Mexico. After 
great sufferings, he returned, in the Summer of 1807, and received the thankc 
of Congress. Passing through several promotions, in military rank, ho reached 
that of colonel of infantry, in 1810. He was stationed on the northern frontier 
at the commencement of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, and early the 
following year ho was promoted to brigadier. In the Spring bf 1813, he was 
chosen, by General Dearborn, to command the land troops in an. expedition 
against York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada. Ho sailed from 
Sackett's Harbor, in a squadron under Commodore Chauncey, on the 25th of 
April, and on the 2Tth ho lindod, with seventeen hundred men, in the face of a 
galling fire from a largo force of British and Indians. Pike pressed forward, and 
the British fled to their fortifications, while the Indians scattered in all directions. 
The general led his troops in person, and after capturing a battery, he rushed 
forward toward the main works. The British fired their magazine, and a ter- 
rible explosion took place. A heavy stone struck the breast of the brave leader, 
and wounded him mortally. He was conveyed to the commodore's ship, in a 
dying condition. While on the vfay, there was a shout, and one of his attend- 
ants said, " The British union jack is coming down, and the stars are going up!" 
Pike could not speak, but sighed heavily, and then smiled. He lingered a few 
hours on ship-board ; and when the British flag was brought to him, he signified 
his desire to have it placed under his head. It was done, and a moment after- 
ward the hero died. He was only a little more than thirty-four years of age. 
His name and memory is perpet' ,ated, not only in his country's annals, but by 
the titles often counties and twcJ.*7-cight townships and villages, chiefly in tho 
Western country. 



DANIEI. BOONE. 

FEW men of such humble pretensions occupy so large a space in history, as 
Daniel Boone. His heroism as an explorer, pioneer, settler, and patriotic 
defender of the soil he had won by his courage in the path of the discoverer, 
partakes so largely of tho spirit of chivalry and true romance, that we incon- 
tinently look upon him with a sentiment of hero-worship. Daniel Boone was 
born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, in 1734. His parents were from Bradninch, 
near Exeter, England; and while Daniel v>'as a small boy, they left Pennsyl- 
vania, and settled near the banks of tho Yadkin, in North Carolina. At that 
time the region beyond the Blue Ridge was an unknown wilderness to the 
white people, for none had ventured thither, as far as is known, until about tho 
year 1750. It was almost twenty years later than this, when Boone was ap- 
proaching the prime of life, that he first penetrated the great Valley of the Mis- 
sissippi, in company with others. He had already, as a bold hunter, been within 
the eastern verge of the present Kentucky, but now ho took a long "hunt," of 

1. Lieutenant Pike dii not discover the true source of fha Misdspjppi. That achievement was reserved 
fjr Henry R. Schoolcraft, who, in 1832, discovered the chief fountain of the Father of Waters to be Itaska 
Lake, in latitude 47 deg., 13min., 35 sec., north, and that its whole majestic course is within the territory 
of the United States. 



DANIEL BOONE. 



193 




about three years. Ho had made himself familiar with the wilderness; and, in 
1773, in company with other families, he started with his own to n.akc a settle- 
ment on the Kain-tuck-ee river. The hostile Indians compelled them to fall back, 
and Boone resided on the Clerich river until 1775, when he went forward and 
planted the settlement of Boonesborough, in the present Madison county, Ken- 
tucky.' There he built a log fort, and in the course of three or four years, sev- 
eral other settlers joined him. His wife and daughters were the liret white 
women ever seen upon the banks of the Kentucky river. He became a great 
annoj'ance to the Indians; and while at the Blue Licks, on the Licking river, in 
February, 177S, engaged with others in making salt, he vras captured by some 
Shawnee warriors from the Ohio country, and taken to Chillicothc. The Indians 
became attached to him, and he was adopted into a Oimily as a son. A ransom 
of five hundred dollars was offered for him, but the Indians refused it. He at 
length escaped (in July following his capture) when ho ascertained that a large 
body of Indians were preparing to march against Boonesborough. They attacked 
that station three times before the middle of September, but were repulsed. 



1. On the 11th of Jrl;:, ITTC, one of Coone's daughters, and two o'.her jTirls, were fc)7C'1 hy the Indians, 
■while thy were in ft boai, reir HoonesboronKh, and carried awa}\ Their screams alarmed the people 
at the fort, and Boone and others started in pursuit. It was then just at sunset. They came up wi;h 
the kidnappers on the 16th, about forty miles frora Uoonesborough, rescued thy girls, and conveyed Ihem 
safely back to their home. 

i;{ 



194 ANDREW PICKENS. 



During Boone's captivity, his wife and children had returned to the house of her 
father, on the Yadkin, where the pioneer visited them in 1779, and remained 
with them for many months. He returned to Kentucky, in 1780, with his famil}-, 
and assisted Colonel Clarke in his operations against the Indians in the Ihinois 
country. He was a very active partisan in that far-oflf region beyond tbe Al- 
leghanies until the close of the war. Prom that time, until 1798, he resided al- 
ternately in Kentucky and in Western Virginia. He had seen that ''wilderness 
blossom as the rose;" and in less than twenty years from the time when he 
built his fort at Eoonesborough, ho saw Kentucky honored as a sovereign State 
of an independent union of republics. Yet he was doomed to lose all personal 
advantages in the growth of the new State. Neglecting to comply with new 
land laws, of whose details he was probably ignorant, he lost his title to lands 
which he had discovered and subdued; and the region which so recently seemed 
all his own, now filled with half a million of his fellow-citizens, afforded him no 
home in fee simple 1 Indignant at what he considered base ingratitude, he 
shouldered his rifle, left Kentucky forever, and, with some followers, plunged 
into the iuterminablc forests of the present Missouri, beyond the Mississippi river. 
They settled upon the Little Osage, in 1799, and the following year, Eoone and 
his companions explored the head waters of the Arkansas. A long time after- 
ward, when he was almost eighty years of age, he trapped beavers on the Great 
Osage. Soon after his return from that "hunt," he sent a memorial to the legis- 
lature of Kentucky, sotting forth that he owned not an acre of land on the face 
of the earth, had nowhere to lay his head, and asked a confirmation of title to 
lands given him in Louisiana, by the Spanish governor, before that territory was 
ceded to the United States. Congress secured two thousand acres to him, and 
so his old age was made comparatively happy by the prospect of a grave in the 
bosom of his own soil. The brave old hero died in Missouri, on the 26th of 
September, 1820, at the age of almost ninety years. His remains now lie beside 
those of Ms wife, in a cemetery at Frankfort, Kentucky. 



A N D 11 E W PICKENS. 

CELTIC blood flowed in the veins of very many of the sagest. .nd soldiers who 
laid the foundations of our Kepubhc. In those of Pickens, the eminent 
partisan soldier of South Carohna, it was unmixed, for his parents were both 
natives of that portion of Ireland where there had been no infusion of the English 
or Scotch element. He was born in Paxton parish, Daupliin county, Pennsyl- 
vania, on the 19th of September, 3 739, and while he was yet a child, his parents 
emigrated to the Waxhaw settlement, in the upper part of South Carolina. Bis 
first military lessons, in actual service, were received while serving as a volun- 
teer under lieutenant-colonel Grant, against the Cherokees, in 1761, having for 
his companions, Marion and Moultrie. He was a warm republican ; and when 
the war of the Revolution was kindled, he took the field as captain of militia. 
His zeal, courage, and skill, immediately attracted attention, and he arose rapidly 
to the rank of brigadier-general. In the region watered by the Savannah, in 
both Georgia and South Carolina, General Pickens performed very important 
services duringthe war, especially in the year 1781. He completely humbled the 
Cherokees and the Creeks ; broke the power of the Tories in the upper country 
around Augusta; and was distinguished for bravery at the Cowpens, the siege 
of Augusta, and at Eutaw Springs. He and Marion commanded the militia of 
South CaroUna in the latter engagement, and in the early part of the conflict, 



FRANCIS ASBURYo 195 



Pickens was severely wounded by a musket ball. From the close of the war 
until 1*794, ho was continually in public life, chiefly as a legislator, and then ho 
was elected to a seat in the House of Representatives of the United States. Ho 
was also appointed one of the two major-generals of the miUtia of his State; and 
in 1796, he declined a reiilection to Congress, but took a seat in the legislature 
of South Carolina. He held that position until 1801, at the same time often 
acting as commissioner to treat with the Indians. Washington had also solicited 
him to accept the command of a brigade of light troops to act under Wayne 
against the tribes of the JS'orth-west, l3ut he declined the honor. He retired to 
private life, in 1801, and there he remained in the peaceful repose of a planter, 
in Pendleton District, South Carolina, until 1812, when ho accepted a seat iu 
his State legislature. He declined the proffered office of governor the following 
year, and again sought repose in the bosom of his family. There ho went to his 
final rest, on the 17th of August, 1817, at the age of seven tj^-cight years. Gen- 
eral Pickens married Rebecca Calhoun, in 17G5. They lived together fifty years. 
She was aunt of the late John C. Calhoun; and at the time of licr marriage was 
considered one of the most beautiful young ladies in the South. Her nuptials 
were attended by a great number of relatives and friends, and " Rebecca Cal- 
houn's wedding " became an epoch in the social history of the district, from 
which old people used to reckon. The remains of husband and wife lie together 
in the grave-yard of the "old stone meeting-house," in Pendleton. 



FRANCIS ASBIJKY. 

PERHAPS no Christian minister, since the settlement of America, has travelled 
as extensively, and labored as untiringly in the face of every kind of ob- 
stacle, as Francis Asbury, the senior Bishop of tho Methodist Church' in tho 
United States. He was born near Birmingham, England, on the 20th of August, 
1745, and came to America, in 1771, at the age of twenty-six j^ears, as a preacher 
of the gospel in the simplicity of the new sect. Two years afterward, the first 
annual conference of the American Methodists was held at Philadelphia. Tho 
converts under the preaching of John and Charles Wesley had widened tho 
circle of the denomination greatly, and at that conference there were ten preachers, 
representing a membership of about eleven hundred. Mr. Asbury continued to 
trav^el and preach continually from that time until 1784, when Dr. Coke, whom 
Mr. Wesley had appointed a presbj^ter of the church in England, and missionary 
to America, consecrated him a superintendent or Bishop of tho Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in the United States. With the zeal of an ancient apostle, he 
entered upon the discharge of his great duties, and visited and organized churches, 
and planted others, in all parts of the republic. In 1790, he crossed the great 
mountains, and held a conference five miles from the present Lexington. It 
was the first general assemblage of the Methodists in the wilderness of the West. 
That conference then numbered only twelve preachers. They were " indiffer- 
ently clad," said Bishop Asbury, "with emaciated bodies, and subject to hard 
fere, but, I hope, rich in faith." 

1. This sect was founded, in 1729, bv John Wesley and a minister named Morpan. Their doctrine is 
the same as that of the Church of England, but they discarded most of its rituals. They adhere to tho 
Episcopal form of church government, though varying somewhat from the Church of England ia its 
administration. The name, as applied to a religious sect, is older than the organization of Wesley and 
others. It was given to two kinds of Popish Doctors of Divinity, in France, about the middle of the 
seventeenth century, who violently opposed the Huguenots. In England, it was applied to those church 
members who were evangelical in their views, and zealous in their preaching. Methodism has beea 
well define! by an English writer, as " Christianity in earnest." 



196 JOHN TRUMBULL. 

From tlie time cf his consecration until his death, a period of thirty-two yean^ 
Bishop Asbury travelled yearly through Svery State in the increasing Union, 
and kept in efficient action the great machinery of the travelling connection. In 
the exercise of his episcopal office, he ordained not less, probably, tlian three 
thousand preachers, and uttered soventeen tliousand sermons, vlft^r spending 
fifty -live years in the ministry (forty-five in America), tliat faithful servant of 
Christ was called to his rest, at the house of his old friend, George Arnold, in 
Virginia, on the ^ 1st of March, 1816, in the seventy-first year of his age. His 
remains, by order of the General Conference, were taken to lialtimore, and de- 
posited in a vault prepared for the purpose under the recess of the pulpit of the 
Methodist Church in Eutaw Street 



JOHN TRUMBULL. 

THE name of Trumbull, the painter,' like Trumbull, the magistrate, will ever bo 
associated with the noblest chapter of American histoij , oecause his pencil 
illustrated its noblest events. The painter was the youngest son of the magis- 
trate, and was born at Lebanon, Connecticut, on the Gtb of June, 1756. After 
receiving an excellent education at Lebanon, he entered Harvard College, where 
he remained about a year, and was graduated in 1772. He had early felt the 
inspirations of art and the aspirations of genius ; and during much of his cohego 
years at Harvard, he was studying books on the subject of drawing and painting, 
or was engaged in copj'ing some pictures there. Ho painted his first original 
picture — Tlie Battle of Oanme — soon after leaving college, and resolved to devote 
his life to art, when the gathering storm of the Re\ olution diverted him from 
that pursuit, and caused him to exchange his pencil for a sword. His fother 
wished him to become a clergyman, but the church militant had not for him the 
charms of martial life, and he became adjutant of the first Connecticut regim.ent, 
which was stationed at Roxbury, in the Summer of 1775. A drawing which 
he made of the enemy's works, by request of Washington, so pleased the com- 
mander-in-chief^ that he made the young painter his aid-dc-camp, in August. 
He was promoted to major of brigade, in the Auxumn, and in that capacity ho 
attracted the attention of adjutant-general Gates. He was appointed, by Gates, 
adjutant-general of the Northern Department, with the title of Colonel, in June, 
1776, and accompanied that officer to Ticonderoga. He did not receive his 
commission from Congress until the following Spring, and then it was dated in 
September. The young soldier was offended, and returned the commission with 
a spicy letter tendering his resignation. Then ended his military career, and he 
went to Boston to resume the study of art. In 1780, he sailed for London, to 
place himself under the instruction of Benjamin "West. The great painter re- 
ceived him kindly, and Trumbull was pursuing his studies quietly, when, late in 
the year, he was arrested as a rebel, and cast into prison on a charge of treason. 
"West immediately interceded for him, before the king, and received the royal 
assurance that the young painter's life should be spared. After an imprisonment 
of eight months, he was admitted to bail on condition that he should quit the 
country immediately. West and Copley became his sureties. He went to 
Amsterdam, and then embarked for America, but the ship was compelled to 



JOHN TRUMBULL. 



197 




/;:^C^^^^^^ 



put back, and he did not reach home until the beginning of 1782. He visited 
tho army on tlie Hudson, toward Autumn, but peace soon came. His father 
then urged him to pursue the profession of the law, but the Artist M'ould not 
listen; and, in November, 1783, he again went to England, and resumed his 
studies, under West, with great zeal, industry, and success. He was so succc ?s- 
fal in the treatment of Priam hearing hack to his Palace the hody of Hector, in 
1785, that he matured a plan for producing a series of historical paintings, rep- 
resenting events in the American Revolution, Before the close of 1786, he had 
produced his Battle of Bunker Hill and Death cf Montgomerij. These were engraved. 
Then followed his superb painting The Sortie of the Garrison of Gilraltor, which 
he sold for twenty-five hundred dollars. He came to America, in 1789, and painted 
as many of the portraits of the signers of the Declaration as were then present 
in Congress. In 1791 and 1792, he was chiefly employed in painting heads for 
his four great national pictures, now in the Rotunda of the capitol, at Washing- 
ton city, namely. Signers of the Declaration of Independence^ Surrender of Bvrgcyne, 
Surrender of Cornwallis, Washington Surrendering his Commission. He then 
went to England as private secretary to Mr. Jay. He went to Paris and en- 
gaged in commercial pursuits, for awhile; and, in August, 1796, he was pppointed 
fifth commissioner to carry out the designs of one article of Jay's treaty with 
Great Britain. His duties did not end until 1804, when he returned to the 
United States, and resumed his pencil at New York. Lacking encouragement, 



198 ROBERT TREAT PAIN"E 



li3 again wont t3 England, and remained there until 1815, wlioa lie r-^turncd to 
New York. The tbllowing year he receivesl a commission from our government 
to paint the four pictures above alluded to. lie was engaged -seveu years on 
them. He was chosen president of the American Academy of Arts, in 1817, and 
was annually elected to that office for many years. Finding no purchasers for 
his collection of paintings, he presented them to Yale College, and they are all 
in jSTew Haven, in a building erected for the purpose, called The Trumbull Gal- 
lery. The venerable artist, soldier, and patriot, died in the city of ISTcw York, 
on the 10th of November, 1843, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. 



TDITIFUL it was to see the heavy care of these poor women — what weep- 

-L ing and crying on every side; some for their husbands carried away 
on the ship; others not knowing what should become of them and their little 
ones; others melted in tears, seeing their poor little ones hanging about them, 
crying for fear and quaking with cold." tJo wrote William iJradford, describ- 
ing the scene on the sea-shore of England when a company of conscientious 
Puritans were endeavoring to cscajje to Holland from their pei-secutoi-s at 
home. While they were embarking on a Dutch ship, a troop of mounted men 
appeared, seized those on shore, a part of them women and a part of them 
men, while others on the vessel were carried av.aj', tlio captain of the ship 
fearing arrest also. So families were i)arted for awhiie, but they were finally 
united in Holland, then the only place in Europe where religious and political 
freedom was tolerated. Bradford was then only nineteen years of age. He 
wa5 born in Austerfield, Yorkshire, England, m March, ln8<S. His father 1( ft 
him a comfortable estate, but, joining the persecuted Puritans, he lesolved to 
flea with some of them to Holland. He made two unsuccessful attemjjts, but 
finally joined hi^ brethren in the Netherlands. Bradford had suflferetl impris- 
oniunt, for being a dissenter, in Boston, Eincolnshire. 

in Amsterdam ho learned the art of silk-dyeing, and when, at the age of 
twenty-one, he came into possession of his patrimony, he engaged, l)ut with- 
out success, in commerce. Bradford was one of Mr. Robinson s congregation, 
and was a zealous promoter of the project of making a settlement in America. 
With Elder Brewster and others, he formed one of the " Pilgrims'' who sailed 
in the il/a(/^o/rc'/% and he was one of the foremost in energy and good judg- 
ment in selecting a place to land on the shores of Cape Cod Bay, amid the 
snows of December, 1020. Before this was accomplished, his young wife fell 
Uito the sea and was drowned. 

On the death of Governor Carver in April, 1621, Bradford was chosen to fill 
his ofTIcial place, and was amnially re-elected so long as he lived, excepting 
five years, between 1082 and 1045. Among his first and most important act ^ 
as govei'nor, he cultivated the friendship of the Indians, especially the great 
chief Massasoit, who ruled a large domain in the vicinity of Plyinouth, the 
town founded by the "Pilgrims." It was wise as well as just policy, and 
Bradford was rewarded for his kindness to the sachem by being forewarned, 
by him of a conspiracy of barbarians for destroying the colony. 

The account of the first interview between Bradford and Massasoit pre- 
sents points of picturesque and romantic interest. The old sachem had sent 
a message to the governor, expressing a desire to meet him and his i^eople. 
He was invited to Plymouth. Late in March, 1621, he appeared on thj top 
of a hill with sixty of his best men, Edward ^7inslow was sent out with 
Massasoit's messenger, as Bradford's representative, carrjdng as a present to 
the forest monarch, three knives, a copper chain with a jewel attached, an 



EDWARD PREBLE. 199 

earriui:^, " a pot of strong water," plenty of biscuit, and some bntter brought 
from tlie Maijjlower. After a brief interview, Winslow remained as a hostage, 
while Massasoit and twenty miarmed followers went forward and met Miles 
Standish and six musketeers at a brook which divided the parties. Massasoit 
and his escort were conducted to an unfinished building, where they were 
seated on a rug and cushions. Governor Bradford came "with drum and 
trumpet after him " and a few musketeers. After cordial salutations and 
bountiful feasting, a treaty was concluded by which it was agreed that the 
parties should be friends, and that they should give mutual protection against 
enemies. 

Governor Bradford was very energetic in promoting the welfare of the col- 
ony and in defending it against evils. He wrote a history of Plymouth Col- 
ony from 1GU2 to 1G47, which remained in manuscript, having a place in the 
library of the old South Church, Boston. When the British army retreated 
from that city in the spring of 1776, one of the officers carried this manuscrijt 
away to Halifax. It was recovered eighty years afterward, and was pub- 
lished by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1856. Governor Bradford 
died. May 9, 1657. 



EDWARD PREBLE. 

THE sons of revolutionary fathers often inherited the courage and patriotism 
of their ancestors ; indeed, the contrary was the exception to a rule, and 
true philosophy has a reason for it. The father of Edward Preble, one of the 
most distinguished of our naval commanders, was the honorable Jedediah Pj-ebk., 
of the ancient town of Falmouth (now Portland), Maine. He was a brigadier 
under the government of the Massachusetts colony, one of the first commaJiders 
of the army at Cambridge, in 1775, and a civilian of eminence when the Revolu- 
tion had fairly commenced. Edward was born at the homestead, on the 15th 
of August, 17G1, and received an academic education at Newbury. In early 
childhood he was noted for great resolution, and a love of athletic exercises. 
Like many lads of that seaport, he had a great desire for ocean life, and he made 
a voyage to Europe, in a privateer, in 1778. The following year he became a 
midshipman in one of the Massachusetts vessels, and was captured during the 
second cruise. Through the influence of Colonel Tyng, a friend of young Preble's 
father, the young man was released at New York, while the remainder of the 
crew were sent to England. He now entered as first lieutenant, on board the 
sloop of war, Wirdhrop, in which he continued during the remainder of the con- 
test, and performed many deeds of valor. After the war, Preble was a ship- 
master in many successive voyages, but stood ready for public service when his 
country should call him to duty.' 

When, in 1798, our hostile relations with France made it necessary to prepare 
our little navy for service, Preble was one of the five first-lieutenants, appointed 
by Congress. In the Winter of 1798-9, he made two cruises, and the following 
Spring he commanded the Essex, under a captain's commission. In the year 

1. The late Rear-admiral G. H. Preble was a nephew of Edward Preble. He was one of the most scholarly men 
In the navy, and enriched the naval literature of our country. His " History of the American Flag" is an exhaus- 
tive treatise on th-i subject. 



200 JOHN H. LIYINGSTOX. 

1800, ho was sent to convoy our merchantmen from the East India seas. Hb 
was afterward appointed to the command 6f the Adams, on the Mediterranean 
station, but ill-health soon compelled him to leave the service, for awhile. In 
1803, ho was placed in command of the frigate Gonstihition, and with the Phila- 
delphia and sc^■eral smaller vessels, ho proceeded to the ]\Iediterranean to humble 
the Algerine pirates who infested those waters. The principal powers engaged 
in that system of commercial robbery were those of Algiers, Tunis, Morocco, and 
Tripoli, known as the Barbary States. Preble first brought the Emperor of 
Morocco to terms, and then appeared before Tripoh, with his squadron. There 
ho lost the Philadelphia, which struck upon a rock in the h.arbor, was captured 
by the Tripolitans, and the officers and crow were made prisoners.' Preble w.';s 
soon afterward relieved by his senior, Commodore Barron. The value of his 
gallant services on the African coast was recognized by a vote of Congress, con- 
ferring upon him the thanks of the nation, and an elegant medal. These wcro 
presented to him, on his return home, by the President cf the United States. 
On leaving his squadron, his officers expressed their esteem in a highly com- 
plimentary address. His services were soon afterward lost to his country, at a 
moment when they were needed more than ever. His health gave way toward 
the close of 1806, and on tho 25th of August, 1807, he died, when in the forty- 
sixth year of his ago. Ho was buried' in his native town, wi<"h military honors. 



JOHN tl. LIVINOSTON. 

THE friend and earliest biographer of President Livingston says of him, " He 
was a man whose praise is in all the churches ; first in her councils — first 
in her honors — first in her aflectious." Ho was born at Poughkeepsie, Duchess 
county, New York, on the 30tli of ^faj-, 1740.'^ He received parental instruc- 
tion, only, until his seventh year, when he was placed under other tutors, among 
whom was tho father cf tho late Chancellor Kent. At the age of twelve years, 
he entereel Yalo Colbge, as a student, and was graduated in 1762, when only 
sixteen. The profession of the law opened a brilliant future for him, and he 
commenced its study under Bartholomew Cranncl, of Poughkeepsie. His habitual 
seriousness was deepened into strong religious convictions, by hearing a sermon 
from the lips of tho eminent Whitefield, and he resolved to abandon the law, 
and become a minister of the gospel. He accordingly went to Holland, in 1766, 
to prosecute theological studies in the University of Utrecht, and there he re- 
mained until 1770, and acquired the degree of Doctor of Divinit}-. He returned 
to America tho same year, and became pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in 
the city of New York. Through his influence, internal dissensions, which had 
prevailed for some time, were healed ; the two parties formed a union, and, in 
1772, tho Dutch churches became independent of the classis of Amsterdam; a 
result for which he had labored while in Holland. 

When the Revolution broke out, all was confusion in New York, and Dr 
Livingston went to reside at Kingston, in October, 1775, where, a month after- 
ward, ho was married to Sarah, daughter of Philip Livingston. Until the British 
took possession of the city of New York, the following jqqx, Dr. Livingston went 

1. See sketches of Bainbridge and Decatur. 

2. Tlie house in which he was born was in possession of the family of his only eUld, the late 
Colonel Henry A. Livingston until about 1880. When the Bntish went up the Hudson, in 1777, to 
burn Kingston, they fired a heavy ro-ind shot at this mansion, because its proprietor was a 
staunch W hig. It passed into the building, a'ld the ball was prasci-. ed by the family. The house 
stands oil the margin of the river, It was built in 1714, the year whan the father of Dr. Livingston 
wa^ born. 



JOHN" IT. LIVINGSTON. 



201 




down frequently, nnd preached to the remnant of his flock, who were compelled 
to remain.' He officiated ministerially at Albany and Livino^ston's Manor; and, 
in 1781, he took up his abode at his fatlicr's mansion, in Poug-hkeepsie. and oc- 
cupied tlie pulpit of the Dutch Church there, for about two years. "When the 
British left New York, Dr. Livingston resumed his pastoral charge there, and the 
following year he was chosen, by the first convention. Professor of Theology. Ho 
porf )rined his new duties, with those of his ministerial services, with great zeal, 
in '^Qw York and its immediate vicinit}^, until 1810, when, on the removal of 
QuG3'.i's College (the tlieological school in which he was professor) to New 
Brunswick, in New Jersey, lie was chosen its president. His inaugural address 
is a model of its kind, f dl of learning and the purest Christian spirit. In 181.3, 
he completed a version of the Psalms and Hymns used in the church, pursuant 
to the request of the general Synod, and that collection is now the standard book 
throughout that denomination. As the college under his charge did not flourisli 
as a literary ^ institution, an effort was commenced, in 1815, to make it a Theo- 
logical Seminarv, exclusively. That measure was carried into effect, and from 
that time, until the present, it has held that character. Its name has been 
changed to Rutgefs College, in honor of a distinguished citizen of New York who 
nobly patronised it. 

1. Dr. Tiivingrston administered the Lord's Snpper in the Middle Dutch Ohnreh (now [1875] the city 
Post Oaace), in June, 1776, the last until the British Ipft the <Jity, in November, 1783. 

9* 



202 GOUVERNEUR MORRIS. 

Dr. Livingston's liealtli began to fail many years before his death, yet he 
labored on and hoped on, until the last. Finally, in January, 1825, he was at- 
tacked with acute pain, but was soon relieved. On the evening of the 28th he 
prayed fervently, in his family, and wont to bed in usual health. When his 
grandson called him to arise for breakfast the next morning, the spirit of the 
good man had departed to the bosom of his God whom he so dearly loved and 
so faithfully served. He was then in the sevontj-'Uinth year of his age. 



GOUVERNEUK MORRIS. 

THE preparation of the Constitution of the United States in the form adopted 
by the convention, in 1787, and ratihcd by a majority of the States, the 
following year, was the work of the accomphshed scholar and statesman, Gon- 
verneur Morris, brother of Lewis, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. He was born at Morrisania, on the tYestchestcr shore of the Harlem 
River, New York, on the 31st of January, 1752, The death of his father left 
him to the care of his mother at the age of twelve years. He was graduated at 
King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York, in May, 1768, at tho 
age of sixteen years, and his oration on that occasion, on the subject of Wit and 
Beauty, made a marked sensation among tho polished circles of the day. He 
studied law under William Smith, tho historian of New York, and afterward 
chief justice of the province, and was licensed to practice, in the Autumn of 
1771. He was not yet twenty years of age, yet he had already engaged in 
political discussions of the day, especially upon financial subjects, and had at- 
tracted the attention of many leading men. He continued much before the 
public in speech and in print, until 1775, when ho was elected to a seat in the 
New York Provincial Congress. There he made a most favorable impression, 
and was soon an acknowledged leader, although then only twenty-three years 
of age. He was one of the committee of correspondence for the city of Nev/ 
York, and his pen was continually busy for the patriot cause. In the Summer 
of 1776, he was sent as special agent to the Continental Congress, on the subject 
of payment to troops ; and in the Autumn of tho following year, he was elected 
to a seat in that body. He was placed on a committee to confer with General 
Washington on the subject of a new organization of the Continental army, and 
he spent nearly three months in the camp at Valley Forge. From the moment 
of presenting his credentials, Mr. Morris v^'as one of the most active and highly 
esteemed members of Congress ; and finally, when the government was newly 
organized, in 1781, under the Articles of Confederation, ho was made assistant 
financial agent with his great namesake of Philadelphia. He was now a per- 
manent resident of that city, where, by an accident, he lost a leg.' He remained 
there until 1786, when he purchased the paternal estate at Morrisania from a 
Tory brother, and soon afterward made it his abode. He. was a delegate from 
Pennsylvania in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, and when 
the various articles had been thoroughly discussed and agreed upon, the task of 
putting the whole instrument into proper form and language was entrusted to 
Mr. Morris. The following year he went to Paris, and resided there until early 
in 1790, when, having received from President Washington the appointment of 

1. He was thrown from a carriasre in the streets of Philadelphia, and the bones of one of his legs were 
so much shattered, that amputation became necessary. He always wore a rough stick, as a substitute, 
and would never consent to have a handsome leg made. 



THOMAS M'KEAN. 203 



privato agent to transact important business with the British ministry, he went 
to London. After accomplishing liis business, lie made a brief tour on the Con- 
tinent. Early in 1192, ho received intelligence of his appointment as minister 
plenipotentiary to the French court, and that important station he hlled until 
the Autumn of 1794, when he mado another Continental tour, chiefly for the 
purpose of gathering information for tho benefit of himself and country. Ho 
finally returned to America in the Autumn of 1798, and retired to private life 
at Morrisania, after an absence often years, during which time he had been en- 
gaged in the most arduous public and private duties. He was soon afterward 
elected to fill a vacancy in tho United States Senate, and held a seat there from 
May, 1800, until March, 1803. He travelled most of the remainder of 1803, in 
tho United States and Canada. His thoughts were ever active on the subject 
of the internal improvement of his native State. He was among the earliest to 
appreciate Jesse Hawloy's plan for connecting the waters of Lake Erie and the 
Iludson, by a canal, and was one of the most ardent friends of tho project. He 
did not live to see it consummated, for death suddenly terminated his career, on 
tho 6th of November, 1816, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. Mr. Morris was a 
fine writer, and his pen wielded an extensive influence during half a century. 



THOMAS M'KEAN. 

4M0]SrGr tho numerous men of note, in Pennsylvania, who received an aca- 
demic education under Francis Allison,' was the eminent Chief Justice 
M'Kean, of that State. He was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 
19th of March, 1734. He studied law with his relative, David Finney, at New 
Castle, in Delaware ; and during his student life, he was clerk of the prothono- 
tary Court of Common Pleas, for that county. He was admitted to practice 
before he was twenty-one years of age, and his upward course in his profession 
was rapid and highly honorable. In 1756, he was appointed deputy of the at- 
torney-general, to prosecute in the county of Sussex, and the following year he 
was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He was ap- 
pointed clerk of the assembly of Delaware, at about the same time; and that 
body, in 1762, appointed him a coheague, with Ctesar Eodncy, to revise and 
print the laws of the province enacted during the preceding ten years. That 
same year he was chosen a member of the Delaware Assembly, "^ and thcp he 
commenced his distinguished political career, in earnest, which continued for 
almost half a century. He was annually reelected to the Assembly for seventeen 
years, against his continually expressed desire to leave public life, and even 
while, for six years of the time, he was a resident of tho city of Philadelphia. 
This was an extraordinary proof of his ability and fidelity.3 

In 1764, the legislature appointed him one of three trustees of the provincial 
loan office, and he performed the duties of that station until 1772. He was a 
delegate to the "Stamp Act Congress" held in New York, in 1765, and was 

1. See sketch of Francis Allison. 

2. The present State of Delaware, which William Penn obtained hv grant and purchase, in 1682, and 
annexed co his province of Pennsylvania, was originally known as The. TerrHorief<, comprising- the three 
counties cf New Castle, Kent, acd Sussex. Penn gave the people of Pennsylvania a new and more 
liberal charter, in 1701, but the people of The. Territoriea preferred a separate and independent govern- 
ment. A compromise was effected. The Delaware counties were allowed a distlnot and independent 
assembly, under the same governor and council as Pennsylvania. Such was the political condition of 
the two commonwealths, imfil finally separated in 1776. 

3. When he finally positively declined a re-election, in 1777. the people insisted that he should name 
some of the best men in Delaware, for their representatives. He did so, and all were elected. 



204 THOMAS BALDWIN. 



cne of the most energetic friends of popular liberty in that assembly. In 1771, 
ho was appointed eoheetor of the customs at*Kevv Castle, and was a commissioner 
of the revenue. In the Autumn of 1772, he was chosen Speaker of the As- 
sembly. He was a delegate for his adopted province in the first Continental 
Congress, in 1774; and he was a member of the national council from that time 
until the return of peace, in 1783. As such he advocated independence, and 
signed the great Declaration. He was one of the committee appointed to draw 
up the Articles of Confederation ; and while acting as a senator in Congress, and 
president of the newly-organized State of Delaware, he was also distinguishtd as 
u soldier, in New Jersey, with the commission cf colonel. In July, 1777, he wc.3 
commissioned chief justice of Pennsylvania, and held that exalted office ftr 
twenty years. It was a position of great responsibility, but Judge M"Kean wr.r; 
equal to t'le task he had assumed. Ho was president of Congress, in 1781 ; 
and, in 1787, he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention which ratified 
the Federal Cons:;;tution. He was its earnest advocate, and was extremely in- 
fiuential in proeurin,^ its ratification, by Pennsylvania. In 1789, Judge M'Kcan 
a,ssisted in amending the constitution of his native State ; and ten years after- 
ward, at the end of a warm party contest, ho was elected governor of Pennsyl- 
vania, He was rather violent in his party zeal, and his course as chief magis- 
trate created the most bitter animosity against him. Ilis political enemies tried 
to impeach him, hat his stern integrity never allowed him to deviate from the 
strict line of duty, and they found no true basis for their attempts to degrade 
him. For nine years he governed Pennsylvania with firmness, ability, and great 
discration, and then retired from public Hfc. Only once again did he appear in 
a popular assembly. It was in Independence Hall, in 1814, when the safety of 
Philadelphia seemed in jeopardy from the British. He presided, and reminded 
the people that there were then only two parties, " our country and its invaders." 
The venerable patriot went down into the grave, on the 24th cf June, 1817, 
when past the eighty-third year of his age. 



THOMAS BALDWIN. 

ONE of the most eminent lights of the Baptist Church, in America, was the 
Reverend Thomas Baldwin, D.D., who was born at Bozrah,^ Connecticut. 
on the 231 of December, 1753. His early education was very limited, yet his 
ardent aspirations for knowledge overcame many obstacles in his way. When 
he was sixteen years of age his parents went to Canaan, then a frontier town in 
New Hampshire, to reside, and there his youth was spent in the laborious voca- 
tion of a blacksmith, the business of his step-father. He was frequently called 
upon to rec^d sermons to the people on the Sabbath, when the minister was ab- 
sent, he being the only young man in the place capable of performing such ser- 
vice. Only a few books could then be obtained, yet so thoroughly did he study 
all that fell in his way, that, when arrived at manhood, he possessed a stock of 
miseellaneous knowledge much greater than that of most young men of his time, 
out of cities. 

Young Baldwin was married to Ruth Huntington, of Norwich, in 1775, and 

1. Th3 origin of this name is a little amusing. A plain man, who lived where Fitchville now is, was 
no^ remarkable for quoting Scripture correctly. On one occasion, in quoting the sentence from Isaiah, 
"Who is tlii^ that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah," Ac, he sitated that the 
Prophet Bozrah said thus and so. He was ever afterward cnlled the Prophet, and his place was nameti 
Bozrah. When the town was incorporated, that name was given to it. 



THOMAS BALDWIN. 



205 




.^"^ 






>€^.^, 



soon afterward became a member of the Baptist Church. He was ordained for 
the Christian ministry, in the Summer of 1783; and at about the same time ho 
was elected to a seat in the Connecticut legislature. Never was a man more 
devoted to his calling, than was this eminent young servant of Clirist. He soon 
declined political office, because it interfered with his ministerial labors. Like 
Paul, his own hands ministered to his necessities, for, during the first seven 
years of his pastoral labors, his salary did not amount to forty dollars a year. 
Yet he travelled on horseback over a large district of country. 

The fame of Mr. Baldwin, as a zealous preacher, was soon in all the churches; 
and, in November, 1790, he was installed pastor of the Second Baptist Church, 
in Boston. The change from the ruder society of the frontier, to the more re- 
fined of the metropolis, was very great, yet his services were most acceptable, 
from the beginning. His fervid and persuasive eloquence captivated all heaits. 
and remarkable revivals occurred under his preaching. Within the space of 
two years [1803-1805], over two hundred communicants were added to his 
congregation. 

In 1803, the Faculty of Union College, New York, conferred the degree of 
Doctor of Divinity, upon Mr. Baldwin ; and the same year he commenced the 
publication of the American Baptist Magazine. He was its sole editor until 1817, 
and senior editor until his death. It was a powerful auxiliary in his hands, in 
promoting the growth of the Baptist Church in this country ; and, for a long 



206 SETH WARNER. 



time, it was tlio only publication issued by tliat denomination on this side tlio 
Atlantic. 

Although eminent as a preacher and editor, Dr. Baldwin is more widely known 
to the reading world as an author. The number of his published works is thirty- 
four, a large proportion of which consists of sermons, printed by special request. 
His writings on Baptism have always been regarded as expressing the opinions 
of the standard authorities of his denomination. Dr. Baldwin was a zealous 
friend of institutions of learning, especially of those fostered by the Baptist 
Church ; and during his long life, until his steps began to totter, he was an active 
laborer. He literally "died in harness," for he expired at Waterville, Maine, on 
the day after preaching two instructive sermons at Hallowell. His departure 
was on the 29th of August, 1825, at the age of seventy-two years. Temperate 
and regular in his habits, his old age was like a sunny landscape just at evening, 
suffused with golden light. 



SETH W A 11 N E U . 

AMONG- the Green Mountain Boys of the last century, the man next to Ethan 
Allen in their esteem, for daring courage, unflinching patriotism, and pleas- 
ant companionship, was Setli Warner, a native of Woodbury, Connecticut, where 
he was born at about the year 1744. We have no reliable records of his early 
life, except that he was fond of athletic sports and i,he excitements of the chase. 
He took up his abode at Bennington, in the present Vermont, in 1773, and was 
famous throughout that whole region as a deer and bear hunter. In the contro- 
versy with the authorities of Vermont, he was one of the leaders of the people; 
and in March, 1774, the legislature of New York passed an act of outlawry against 
him. He was with Ethan Allen at the capture of Ticonderoga, in May, 1775, 
and commanded the little force that took possession of Crown Point immediately 
afterward. He received a colonel's commission from Congress, raised a regiment of 
Green Mountain Boys, ' and joined the army in Canada, under G-eneral Montgomery ; 
but on the approach of Winter, they were discharged. He had been of great 
service after the capture of Ethan Allen, at Montreal, and on the 1st of Novem- 
ber, had repulsed a considerable British force, under Governor Carleton, which 
attempted to land at Longueuil for the purpose of driving the invading Amer- 
icans back to Lake Champlain. The following Spring, Warner raised another 
regiment, marched toward Quebec, and was very serviceable in the final retreat 
of the Americans from Canada. In all the operations in the vicinity of Lake 
Champlain, in 1776, Colonel Warner was an efficient participator; and he was 
lat Ticonderoga, in the Summer of 1777, when Burgoyne compelled the Amer- 
icans to abandon that post. He commanded a part of St. Clair's troops in that 
retreat, and gallantly fought the pursuing enemy at Hubbardton, on the 7th of 
July. Defeated in that engagement, he made a siiccessful retreat to Manchester, 
and on the 16th of August following, he was with the gallant Stark in the en- 
gagement known as the Battle of Bennington. He then joined General Gates on 
the Hudson, assisted in humbling Burgoyne, and participated in the glory of his 
defeat and capture. He engaged very little in public life, after that event, be- 
cause his health was greatly impaired by a complication of disorders. He lin- 
gered on until 1785, when death ended his sufferings. He died at his birth-place, 
at the age of about forty-one years. Grateful for his services, his adopted State 
granted a valuable tract of land to his widow and children. 

1. See sketch of Ethan Allen. 



JOSEPH REED. 207 



JOSEPH REED. 

" T AM not worth purchasing, but, such as I am, the King of Great Britain is 
1 not rich enough to do it," are the noble words attributed by tradition to 
Joseph Reed, of Pennsylvania, and uttered when a bribe was offered for his 
i:irtuence in favor of Great Britain, in 1178. He was born at Trenton, iSTcw 
Jersey, on the 27th of August, 1741. His father soon afterward made Phila- 
delphia his residence, for several years. Joseph was designed for the profession 
of the law, and was educated in the college at Princeton, where he was grad- 
uated in 1757, with a Bachelor's degree, at the early age of sixteen years. He 
first studied law with Richard Stockton, and completed his legal education in the 
Temple, in London. On his return home, he made Philadelphia his residence, 
entered warmly into political life, and was one of the committee of correspond- 
ence in his adopted city, in 1774. He was chosen president of the first popular 
convention in Pennsylvania; and, in 1775, he accompanied Washington to 
Cambridge as his aid and secretary. He remained with the chief during that 
campaign, and the following year, when Gates was appointed to the command 
in the Northern Department. Mr. Reed was then appointed adjutant-general 
of the American army, with the rank of colonel. He performed efficient service 
in the battle near Brooklyn, in August, 1776, especially in the management of 
the admirable retreat of the Americans. In the Spring of 1 7 7 7, he was appointed 
a brigadier, in command of cavalry, but declined the honor, yet he remained at- 
tached to the army until after the battle at Germantown, in the Autumn of 
1777. He was soon afterward elected to a seat in Congress, and was a member 
of that body when, in the Spring of 1778, commissioners came from England to 
negotiate a peace on the basis of the submission of the colonists to the crown. 
It was to the agent of one of these commissioners that he is said to have ad- 
dressed the words above quoted.' The fact became known, and Congress re- 
fus3d further intercourse with the commissioners. In 1778, General Reed was 
chosen president of the newly-organized commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and 
filled that station with great ability until October, 1781, when he retired from 
public life, and resumed the practice of the law. Like all dutiful men, he was 
the target for unmeasured abuse from his political opponents ; but when time 
dissipated the clouds of party rancor, all men beheld in Joseph Reed a patriot 
and an honest man. His health became impaired in 1784, and he went to Eng- 
land to seek its restoration, but without beneficial results.^ He died on the 4th 
of March, 1785, at the ago of forty-four years. 

1. The agent chosen was Mrs. Ferguson, a native of Pennsylvania, whose husband was a relative of 
Adam Ferguson, the secretary of the commission. She was a woman of superior attainments, and loved 
her country. She was a passive, rather than an active agent in the matter. In her account of her in- 
terview with Mr. Reed, she says his words were, "My influence is but small, but were it as great as 
(xovernor Johnstone [the commissioner who approached General Reed, through Mrs. Ferguson] would 
insinuate, the King of Great Britain has nothing within his gift that would tempt me." Alluding t® 
this, Trumbull, in Ills " M'Fingal," says : 

" Behold, at Britain's utmost shifts, 
Comes Johnstone, loaded with like gifts, 
To venture through the Whiggish tribe, 
To cuddle, wheedle, coax, and bribe ; 
And call to aid his desp'rate mission, 
His petlicoated politician; 
While Venus, joined to act the farce, 
Strolls forth embassadress of Mars." 

2. Mr. Reed married a daughter of Dennis de Berdt, a London merchant, in 1770. Though in delicate 
health, she was active in her sphere of duty in relation to public events. She was at the head of an 
association of ladies, formed in Philadelphia in 1780, to furnish clothing for the army. No less than 
twenty-two hundred ladies joined the association, and contributed by their money and needles to tho 
comfort of the soldiers. 



208 JAMES EIVINGTON. 



JAMES RIVINGTON. 

PERHAPS one of the most acute and successful political e:amesters in this 
country, was James Rivington, "the king's printer," in New York, during 
a greater portion of the War for Independence. He Avas a native of London, 
well-educated, courtly in deportment, and a general favorite among his acquaint' 
ances. He was a bookseller in London, but faihng in business, he came t:> 
America, in 1760, and opened a book-store in Philadelphia. The following year 
he opened another at the foot of Wall Street, New York; and, in 17G2, he 
established a third, in Boston. His partner in the latter died three j-ears after- 
ward, and it was closed. In the course of a fev/ years ho again failed in busi- 
ness, but settling his affairs satisfactorily, he resumed it in New York, and 
thereafter confined his operations to that city. He commenced printing books, 
in 1112; and, in the Spring of the following year, he published the first number 
of his Royal Gazetteer^ a weekly newspaper. \t Avas conducted with considerable 
fairness, but after the hostilities in Massachusetts, in the Spring of 1175, he took 
strong ground against the Whigs, and excited their fiercest indignation. Their 
ire took tangible shape in November of that year, when Isaac Sears (a leader of 
the Sons of Liberty ten years before), at the head of a troop of Connecticut mil- 
itia, marched into the city at noon-day, destroyed Rivington's press, and car- 
ried off his tA'-pc to the tunc of Yankee Doodle. Rivington soon afterward went 
to England, but returned in the Autumn of 1776, when the British had taken 
possession of New York. Early in 1777, he resumed the publication of his 
paper, and from that time till the close of the war, he dealt hard and unscrupu- 
lous blows upon the patriots, from Washington and Congress down to the most 
obscure official. And yet, toward the close of the conflict, while his press was 
the vehicle of the coarsest abuse of W^ashington and his friends, it is a well-at- 
tested fact that Rivington was secretly furnishing the American commander-in- 
chief valuable information concerning the movements and plans of the enemy 
within the city. Such was the case from early in 1781, until the evacuation of 
the city by the British near the close of 1783,' This fiict accounts for the other- 
wise inexplicable circumstance, that Rivington, the arch-loyalist, was allowed 
to remain while thousands of less offending Tories were compelled to flee to 
Nova Scotia. Rivington sagaciously perceived the inevitable result of the con- 
flict, and thus made a peace-oftering to the Americans. His business declined 
after the war, and he lived in comparative poverty for many years, simply be- 
cause ho would not relinquish his expensive mode of living.^ He died in July, 
1802, When at the age of about seventy-eight years. 

1. By means of books which lie printe'l, he performed his treason withont suspicion. Tie -wrote his 
information upon thin paper, a-ul hound those billets in the covers of books which he adroitly inanajred to 
sell to persons employed by Washinsrton to buy of him, but who were ignorant cf the transaction. \\ asli- 
inston removed the covers, and found the desired information. Referiing to the change in the tone ot 
Rivington's paper, at the clo'^e of the war, Philip Freuau, the vigorous epic and lyric poet cf the 
Kevolution, wrote, in the editor's name : 

" You know I was zealous for George's command, 

lint since he disgraced it, and left us behind, 

If I thought him an angel I've altered my mind. 

On the very same dav that his army went hence, 

I ceased to tell lies for the fake of his pence ; 

And what was the reason — the true one is best, 

I worship no sun that declines to the west." 
3. Referring to this, Frenau wrote : 

" liOng life and low spirits were never my choice, 

^s long as I live I intend (o rejoice; 

When life is worn out, and no wire 's to be had, 

'Tis time enough then to be serious and sad, 

'Tis time enough then to reflect and repent, 

When our liquor is gone, and our money is spent." 



JOHN DICKENSON. 



209 




JOHN 13 I C K E N S O N . 

THE " Letters of a Farmer of Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British 
Colonies," published in the Pmnsy'lvania Chronicle, during the Summer jmd 
Autumn of 1767, had a powerful influence on the American mind, in preparing- 
it for the great struggle for freedom, even then impending. The author was 
John Dickenson, a native of Maryland, where ho was born, on the 13th of 
November, 1732. His father was first judge of the Court of Common Pleas, in 
Delaware, and being wealthy, his son had every advantage of social position 
and pecuniary ease, at the beginning of life. He was well educated by private 
tutors, and then went to England and studied law in the Temple, for three years, 
lie first appeared in public life as a mcn.ber of the Pennsylvania Assembly, in 
1764, where the readiness of his pen attracted general attention. He was also 
a member of the Stamp Act Congress, in 1765. He soon afterward comm.enccd 
writing political essays; and during the whole conflict, which commenced in 
earnest in 1775, his pen was always active and efficient. His Letters of a Penn- 
sylvania Farmer, above alluded to, were published in London, by Dr. Franklin, 
in 1768, and the following year they were translated into French, and published 
at Paris.' __^ 

1. The people of I5os(on pMsserl a vote of Ihanks (o Mr. Dickenson for those Letters, and (he Society 
of Fort St. David, of Philadelphia, p:eseuteJ him with an address iu " a box of heart of oak." 



210 PETER MUHLENBERG. 

Mr. Dickenson was a member of the fijst Continental Congress, in 1774, o-id~ 
his pen was instrumental in the preparation of two of the State papers put fonh 
by that body. He wrote the Declaration of the Congress of 1775, setting forth 
the causes and the necessity for war; yet he steadily opposed the idea of polit- 
ical independence, for he hoped for a reconciliation. Eor that reason, he was 
intentionally absent from Congress on the 4th of July, 1776, for he was unwill- 
ing to vote on the subject of independenco, contrary to the expressed wishes of 
his constituents. In the Autumn of 1777, President M'Keau, of Delaware, 
co;n.nis5ioned him a brigadier-general, but his military career was short. Ho 
was again elected to Congress, in 1779, and there, as before, his pen was em- 
ployed in the preparation of important State papers. In 1780, ho took his scat, 
as a membar, in tlie Delaware Assembly; and, in 1782, he was elected president 
or governor of Pennsylvania. He held that office until October, 1785, He was 
one of the most accomplished and efficient members of the convention that 
framed the Federal Cousti^ition ; and over the signature of Fabius ho published 
nine ably- written letters in its defence. In 1792, he assisted in forming a Con- 
stitution for Delaware; and, in 1797, he published another scries of political 
letters over the signature o? Fabius. At about that time he retired from public 
life, and the remainder of his days were passed in the enjoyment of domestic 
and social happiness, at Wilmington, where he died on the 14th of Februarv, 
1808, at the age of seventy -five years. Dickenson College, at Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
vania, is a noble monument to perpetuate his memory. It is now [1854] under 
the control of the Baltimore and Philadelphia conferences of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. 



PETEK MUHLENBElia. 

SPIEITUAL and temporal warfare was the lot of many Gospel ministers, dur» 
ing the War for Independence. Of those who wielded weapons manfully, 
in both fields of conflict, was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, who generally 
wrote his name with the John and Gabriel omitted. Ho was a native of Trappo, 
a village in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where ho was born on the 1st 
of October, 1746. Ho was the son of Dr. Melchoir Muhlenberg (the founder of 
the Lutlieran Church in America), and the daughter of Conrad Weiser, the great 
Pennsylvania Indian agent, Peter was educated for the ministry, partly in this 
country, and partly in Europe. Ho was ordained in 1768, and commenced his 
pastoral labors in Western New Jersey the following year. Ho was called to 
the charge of a congregation in Virginia, in 1771, and it being necessary to ob- 
tain ordination from an English Bishop, before ho could enter upon his duties 
there, he went to London for the purpose, at the beginning of the following 
year. He and Mr, (afterward Bishop) White were ordained at the same time. 
Oa his return, h3 became minister of the parish of Woodstock, Virginia, and was 
soon an acknowledged leading spirit of that section among those who opposed 
British aggressions. He was chairman of the committee of safety in that county, 
in 1774, and was elected to a seat in the House of Burgesses. At the close of 
1775, he was appointed colonel of a Virginia regiment, and, rehuquishiug his 
pastoral duties,' he joined the army, and was in the battle at Charleston, in 

1. la concluding his farewell sermon, he quote 1 llu language of Holy Writ, which declares that there 
is " a time for all things," and added, with n, trninnel voice, " there is a time to fight, and that time has 
now come !"' Then laying aside his gown, li i stood before his flock in the full uniform of a Virginia 
colonel. Hethenorr'ered th<> drums to be bra ei : t t'e "liurch door fr recruits, and almost three hundred 
men, chiefly of his congregation, were enrolled under his banner, that day. 



SILAS TALBOT. 211 



June, 177G. Congress commissioned him a brigadier, in February, 1717, and he 
was ordered to tal^e charge of all the Virginia Continental troops. He joined 
the army, under Washington, at Middlebrook, in May, and was with the chief 
in all his movements from that time until 1779 — Brandy wine, Germantown, 
White Marsh, Valley Forgo, and Monmouth. He was with Wayne at the cap- 
ture of Stony Point, in July, 1779, and was very active afterward, in Virginia, 
until the capture of Cornwallis, in the Autumn of 1781. He was a brave par- 
ticipator in that last great battle of the Revolution. At the close of the war ho 
Avas promoted to major-general, and removed to Pennsylvania. He never re- 
sumed his ministerial labors, but served his native State in several civil offices. 
He was a member of the first and third Congress, after the organization of the 
Federal Government, and was also a United States Senator, in 1801. Ho was 
appointed supervisor of the revenue of Pennsylvania the same year; and, in 
1802, ho was made collector of the port of Philadelphia. In that office he re- 
mained until his death, which occurred at his country seat, near Philadelphia, 
on the 1st of October, 1807, when he was precisely sixty-one years of age. His 
remains lie buried in the burial-ground at Trappo, near the church wherein ho 
was baptized. 



SILAS TALBOT. 

THE exigencies of the pubhc service during the War for Independence often- 
times made officers amphibious — called to duty on laud and water — as in 
the case of Arnold, Drayton, and others. Silas Talbot was of this class, and ono 
of the bravest and most devoted. His memory has been rescued from oblivion 
by an accomplished writer of our day (H. T. Tuckerman, Esq.), who, with in- 
finite pains, has grouped the chief incidents of his checkered lifj into a miniature 
volume. Our hero was a lineal descendant of Sir Richard do Talbot of the time 
of William the Conqueror, and seems to have inherited the martial taste of his 
illustrious ancestor. He was a native of Rhodo Island, but little is known of 
his early life. He was a young man when the war broke out, and ho entered 
heartily into the contest. He then resided in Providence, where he had married, 
in 1772, and built himself a house, with his own earnings. Early in 1775, ho 
had organized a little company of volunteers ; and, in Juno following, the State 
gave him the commission of captain in one of its regiments. lie joined the camp 
at Roxbury, was active during that campaign, and accompanied the army to 
New York, in the Spring of 17 7G. There he performed some daring exploits 
against the British shipping in the harbor, which elicited the thanks of Congress, 
and procured him a major's commission. In the Autumn of 1777, he was in tho 
memorable siogo of Fort Mifflin, on tho Delaware, whero ho was twice badly 
wounded. The following year wo find Major Talbot busily engaged in furnish- 
ing boats for General Sullivan to transport his troops across the channel at tho 
upper end of Rhodo Island; and from that time, until tho evacuation of tho 
Island, by tho British, he was active in all military and naval events, in that 
vicinity. In the Autumn of 1779, he was commissioned a captain in the navy, 
and ho afterward made as successful cruises, as ho had already during his six 
months of naval command previous to the date of his commission. He was 
captured by a small British fleet, in 1780, and suffered the horrors of the Jersey 
prison-ship,^ and the Provost jail, at New York, for several months. He was 

1. This was an old hnlk, moored where the Biooklyn Navy Yard now is, and nsed as a prison for 
captured American seamen. Soldiers were also immured there. Several thousands peiishcd of famiiie 



212 NATHAN HALE. 



finally taken to England, and exchanged ^t the close of 1781. After the war, 
lie purchased a portion of the forfeited estate of Sir William Johnson's heirs, on 
the Mohawk, and retired to private life. In 1794, when a new organization of 
the navy took place, Captain Talbot was called into the public service ; and ho 
superintended the construction of the Const Itidion^ which became his flag-ship, 
in 1799, while on a cruise in the West Indies, whh the afterward renowned 
commander of the same ship (Hull), as his lieutenart. Talbot remained in active 
sen-ice until 1801, when he resigned his commission, took up his abode in the 
city of New York, and lived in retirement until iiis death, on the 30th of Juno, 
1813. His rem-'^s were buried under Trinity Church. 



NATHAN HAI.I^. 

ONE of the earliest martyrs in the cause of popular liberty, in America, was 
Captain Naihan Hale, whose fate, and that of Major Andre, history may 
properly parallel. Ho was a sou of Richard Halo, of Coventry, Connecticut, and 
was born in that town, twenty miles from Hartford, about the year 1754. Ho 
was graduated at Yalo College, with distinguished approbation, in 1773, when 
the tempest of the Ilcvolutiou was gathering force, iired with zeal for liberty, 
he joined the Connecticut troops that hastened to Boston after the skirmishes at 
Lexington and Concord, and was with Captain (afterward Colonel) Knowlton in 
t'.ie battle on Breed's Hill. lie continued with the army under the immediate 
command of Washington, until the following year, and participated in the battle 
near Brooklyn, and the retreat of the American army, from Long Island. At 
that time Knowlton was in command of a regiment, called Corigrefs^ Oivn, that 
assumed a sort of body-guardianship to the commander-in-chicfj and j'oung Halo 
held a captain's commission in it. While the American arm5nvcre r.pon Harlem 
Heights, and the great body of the British were yet on Long Island (in the 
vicinity of Brooklyn, and of tlio present Astoria), Washington was very anxious 
to ascertain the exact condiiion of the enemy's forces. He applied to Colonel 
Knowlton for a judicious person to go as a spy into the British camp. Captain 
Halo volunteered for the service, and bearing instructions from Wr.shington, he 
crossed Long Island Sound from the Connecticut shore, visited the British 
camps, made notes and sketches, unsuspected, and was r.bout to embark from 
Huntington, to Connecticut, when ho was discovered and exposed, it is said, by 
a Tory relative, and was made a prisoner. He was taken to Sir William Howe's 
head-quarters at Turtle Bay, confined in Bookman's green-house in the garden, 
until morning, and then, vrithout the form of a regular trial, was handed over to 
Cunningham, the brutal provost-marshal in New York, for cxccuticn cs a Fipj. 
Tliat v.-rctch would not allow him to have the company cf a clcrgym.an, ror the 
use of a Bible ; and ho even destroyed the letters which the victim had written 
to his mother and sisters during the night. Amid cruel jeers he was hanged, 
like a dog, upon an apple tree, and his body was buried in a grave beneath its 
shadow. He suffered death "in accordance with the stern laws of war, but his 
treatment, from the hour of his capture until his death, was disgraceful to the 
British commander. Hale's last words were. "I only regret that I have ret 
more lives to give to my country."^ A beautiful monument has been erected to 
his memory in his native town. 



and disease in Ihat loathsome prison. The Provost jail was also a place of horrors. It wag in Liberty- 
Street, near Nassau Street. 

1. A full account of Hale's capture and death may be found in Onderdonk's i:eioliit<o}iary Incidfnis 
on Long Idand, and in Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Eevolution. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



213 



i 




ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

AROUISTD the name of Hamilton, the pure patriot, the brave soldier, the ac- 
complished statesman, and acute financier, there is a halo which brightens 
With the lapse of years, for he was peerless among his fellows. He was a native 
of th3 island of Nevis, in the "West Indies, and was descended from a Scotch 
father and a French mother. He was born on the 11th of January, 1151. Ho 
received a fair education in childhood, and at the age of twelve years he became 
a clerk in the mercantile house of Nicholas Cruger, at St. Croix. Every leisure 
mDm3nt h3 devoted to study; and while yet a mere youth, a production of his 
p3n give such evidence of great genius, that the friends of his widowed mother 
providsd ra3ans for sending him to New York to be thoroughly educated. At 
the age of sixteen years he accompanied his mother to the United States, and 
entered King's (now Columbia) College as a student, where he remained about 
three years. The contest of words, with Great Britaiil, was then raging, and 
gave sops to his thoughts and topics for his pen. "When only seventeen years 
of age he appeared as a speaker at public meetings, and he assisted the Sons of 
Liberty in carrying off British cannon from the battery of Fort George, at the 
foot of Broidwav, in 1775. He entered the army as captain of an artillery com- 
pany, raised chiefly by himself; and performed good service at "White Plains, 
Trenton, and Princeton. His pen was as active as his sword, and many articles, 
attributed to more mature and eminent men, were the ofispring of his brain. 



214 WILLIAM GRAY. 



He attracted the special attention of "Washington, and in March, 1117, the com- 
mander-in-chief appointed him his aid-de-^amp, with the rank of heutenant- 
colonel. During the remainder of the war, until the capture of Cornwallis in 
the Autumn of 1781, he was Washington's chief secretary, and was also the 
leader of a corps of light infantry, under La Fayette, at the siege of Yorktown. 
After that event ho left the army, and, in 1782, was admitted to practice at the 
bar of the Supreme Court of the State of K'ew York. Ho was a meniber of 
Congress during that year, but declined a reelection. He had married a daughter 
of General Philip Schuyler, in 1780, and he looked to his profession for the sup- 
port of his family. He rose to distinction very rapidly, yet in the midst of his 
extensive business, he found time to employ his pen upon subjects of national 
importance. He was a member of the convention that framed tlie Federal Con- 
stitution, and in connection with Madison and Jay, wrote the series of articles 
in favor of that instrument, known as The Federalist. Of tlio eighty-five num- 
bers, Hamilton wrote fifty-four. Ho was also a member of the State convention, 
held at Poughkeepsie in 1788, that ratified the Constitution. When, in 1789, 
the new government was organized, Washington, on tlie earnest recommenda- 
tion of Robert Morris, placed Mr. Hamilton at the head of the Treasury. It was 
a wise choice, for financial difQculties were more formidable than any others in 
the way of the administration, and no man was more capable of bringing order 
out of confusion, than Mr. Ilamilton. His consummate skill soon regulated 
money matters; but while he was improving the fiscal condition of tlie govern- 
ment, he was injuring his own. He accordingly resigned his office, in 1795, and 
turned his attention to his profession. When a provisional army was raised, in 
1798, Washington accepted the commission of commandcr-in-chicfj only on con- 
dition that Hamilton should be his associate, and second in command. This 
was Hamilton's last public service. In the Winter of 1804, he became involved 
in a political dispute with Colonel Aaron Burr, which resulted in a duel in July 
following. They met at Hoboken, and upon the same spot where his son was 
killed in a duel a few years previously, Hamilton was mortally wounded, and 
died the next day, July 12th, 1804, at the age of little more than forty-seven 
years. His wife survived him, in widowhood, fifty years. She died on the 9th 
of November, 1854, at the ago of ninety-seven years and three months. The 
voluminous papers of General Hamilton were purchased by Congress, and after 
being arranged by his son, John C. Hamilton, they were published in seven 
octavo voliT^es, in 1841. 



WILLIAM OR AY. 

THE successful and honorable merchant is one of the most valuable integrals 
of a nation's strength, for he is the factor of the nation's labor and capital. 
One of the most eminent in this profession was William Gray. He was born 
in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1751, and when quite a small boy, was apprenticed 
to a merchant in Salem^ He finished his commercial education with Richard 
Derby, ^ of that port; and such was his character for enterprise and strict in- 
tegrity during his apprenticeship, that when, soon after its close, he commenced 

1. After the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, on the 19th of April, 1775, the Provincial Conarrccs 
of Massachusetts, in session at Watertown, wiih Joseph Warren at its head, prepared a full and elaborate 
statement of the affair, with an Address to the People of Great Biitain. Richard Derby (the master of 
young Gray) was employed to carry these documents to England, and place them in the hands of Dr. 
J'ranklin, in London. He arrived there on the 29th of May, and the Address and Statement were pub- 
lislied in the London papers. This was the first information ^he British public had of the affair. 



DAYID HUMPHREYS. 215 



business for himself, he had the entire confidence and good-will of the whole 
community. Prosperity waited upon him in all his transactions, and in less 
than twenty-five years after he commenced busmess, he was taxed as the 
wealthiest man in Salem, notwithstanding some of the largest fortunes in the 
United States belonged to men of that town. His enterprise and industry was 
wonderful ; and at one time he had more than sixty sail of square-rigged vessels 
on the ocean. For more than fifty years he arose at dawn, and was ready for 
the business of the day before others had finished their last nap. Although ho 
had millions of dollars afloat on the sea of business, ho was careful of small ex- 
penditures — those leaks which endanger the ship — and his whole life was a 
lesson of prudent economy, without penuriousness. 

Mr. Gray was a democrat, and his sincerity was evinced by the fact that dur- 
ing the embargo, ho took sides with Jefferson, notwithstanding all New England 
was in a blaze against the president, and it was an injury to the amount of tens 
of thousands of dollars to the great merchant's business. In the midst of the 
commercial distress, ho removed to Boston, and having pleased the people while 
a State Senator, ho was chosen lieutenant-governor of the Commonwealth. Ho 
used his immense riches for the wants of government, and never took advan- 
tages of the exigencies of the times, to speculate in government securities. After 
the war of 1812-'15, ho engaged largely in business again, but he lost often and 
heavily. Yet he died a rich man, honored and beloved for his virtues, on the 
4th of November, 1 8.25, at the age of about seventy-four years. 



DAVID HUMPHREYS. 

IT is inscribed upon a neat granite monument, in a cemetery at New Haven, 
Connecticut, that " David Humphreys, doctor of laws, member of the Acad- 
emy of Sciences of Philadelphia, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, of the Bath 
[Agricultural Society] and of the Royal Society of London," was "a distinguished 
historian and poet; a model and a patron of science, and of the ornamental and 
useful arts." Ho was born in Derby, Connecticut, in 1753, and was graduated 
at Yale College, in 1771. A few months afterward, he went to reside, as a tutor, 
in the flimily of Colonel Philipse,' of the Philipse Manor, on the Hudson. How 
long he remained in that capacity we have no record, and we lose sight of the 
future " historian and poet" until the war of the Revolution began, when we 
find him at the head of a company of Connecticut militia. He afterward joined 
the Continental army, with a captain's commission, and was under the immediate 
command of General Putnam until 1778, when that officer made him one of his 
aids, with the rank of major. He held that commission until the Autumn of 1 780, 
when he was promoted to the office of aid to "Washington, with the rank of 
colonel. He remained in the military family of the commander-in-chief until the 
close of the war. For his valor at Yorktown, where Cornwallis was captured, 
Congress honored him with a vote of thanks, and the present of an elegant 
sword. 

In May, 1784, Colonel Humphreys was appointed secretary to the commission 
for negotiating treaties with foreign powers, and with his friend Kosciusczko, ac- 
companied Mr. Jefferson to Paris. He returned in 1786, and was elected to a 
seat in the Connecticut legislature. He was appointed to the command of a 
regiment raised for the western service, but was not called to the field ; and from 

1. Brother of Mary Philipse, wife of Colonel Roger Morrif. See page 227. 



216 JOHN MARSHALL. 



178G till 1788, he resided at Hartford, where, with Trumbull, Barlow, and Hop- 
kins, ho wrote the Anarchiad. By invitatioa of Washington, Colonel Humphreys 
resided iu the family of the great Patriot from 1788 until appointed by his il- 
lustrious friend minister to Portugal, iu 1790. He went thither in 1791, and 
returned in 1794. He was soon afterward appointed minister to Spain, and took 
up his abode at Madrid, early in 1795. While there he negotiated treaties with 
Tripoli and Algiers, and was successful in all his diplomatic duties. He was 
succeeded in oJfice by General Thomas Pinckney, iu 1802, and then returned 
home. The year previously, he sent a flock of one hundred merino sheep to 
America, the first ever seen in this country, and the cultivation of this valuable 
stock was his chief employment during the latter years of his life. He took 
command of the militia of Connecticut, in 1812, but was not in actual service. 
Being blessed with ample pecuniary means,' he lived in elegant retirement until 
his sudden de;jth, which was ctuised by an organic disease of the heart. That 
event occurred on the 21st of February, 1818, when he was sixty-five years of 
9,ge. 

Colonel Humphreys wrote much in prose and verse. In 1782, he published 
quite a long poetical address to the armies of the United States. He wrote a 
number of smaller poems, a tragedy, and several political tracts; and, in 1788, 
he wrote a Life of General Putnam, from narratives uttered by the old hero's 
lips, carefully written out. 



JOHN MARSHALL. 

THE long-honored patriot, and eminent chief justice of the United States, John 
Marshall, was born at Germantown, in Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 
24th of September, 1755, and was the eldest of fifteen children by the same 
mother. He received some classical instruction in early youth, and from child- 
hood he evinced a taste for literature and general knowledge. He became 
physically vigorous by field sports, and his solitary meditations were generally 
amid the wildest natural scenery. When Dunmore invaded Lower Virginia, in 
1775, young Marshall was appointed lieutenant in the "minute battahon," and, 
with his father, performed good service in the battle at the Great Bridge, near 
the Dismal Swamp. In July, the following year, he was attached to the Vir- 
ginia Contmental line, with the same commission; and, early in 1777, he joined 
the army under Washington. He was in the battles of Brandy wine and Ger- 
mantown, suffered at Valley Forge, and fought at Monmouth in the Summer of 
1778. as c;) nmander of a Virginia company. He remained in service until early 
in 1780, when he turned his attention to the study of the law. He attended 
the lectures of Mr. Wytlo (afterward chancellor of Virginia), and toward the 
close of Summer was admitted to practice. A few months afterward, Virginia 
was invaded by Arnold, and ]^farshall again joined the army in defence of his 
native State. There being a redundancy of officers, ho soon resigned his com- 
mission, but he had no opportunity to practice his profession until after the cap- 
ture of Cornwallis, in the Autumn of 1781. He then soon rose to distinction as 
a lawyer; and, in the Spring of 1782. ho was elected to a seat in the Virginia 
legislature. In the Autumn of that year ho was chosen a member of the exec- 
utive council. 

In January, 1783, Mr. Marshall married a daughter of the treasurer of Vir- 
ginia, and they lived together about fifty years. He resigned his seat at the 

1. In 1797, Colonel Humphi-eys married the daugbler of a very wealthy Eaglish merchant, cf Lisbon. 



JOHN MARSHALL. 



2ir 




council board, in 1784, and immediately afterward (though a residtnt of Rich- 
mond) he was chosen to represent his native county in the legislature. He 
represented Henrico county, in 1787. In the Virginia convention called to con- 
sider the Federal Constitution, Mr. Marshall was one of the most zealous and 
effective supporters of that instrument. He served in the Virginia legislature 
until 1792, when he again devoted his whole time to his profession. He was 
a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, in 1795, and nobly defended Jny's 
memorable treaty.' His speech, on that occasion, made a profound impression 
in xlmerica and Europe. Soon afterward, he was sent as one of three envoys 
extraordinary to the government of France. On his return, he was elected to a 
seat in the Federal Congress. Within three weeks after entering upon his duties 
th3re, he was called upon to announce, in that body, the death of Washington! 
His words, on that occasion, were few but deeply impressive. His career in the 
national legislature was short, for, in 1800. he was chosen first Secretary of War, 
and then Secretary of State; and, in January, 1801, he was appointed chief 
justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From that time he discarded 
party politics, and in his lofty station he performed his exalted duties with great 
dignity and unsuspected integrity, during the remainder of his life. He v.as 



1. See sketch of John Jay. 



218 WILLIAM WIRT. 



not unmindful of the claims of his native State, and as his residence was at its 
capital, he frequently assisted in public duj;ies. This eminent jurist died at 
Philadelphia, on the 6th of July, 1835, in the eightieth year of his age. Two 
days before his death he enjoined his friends to place only a plain slab over the 
graves of himself and wife, and he wrote the simple inscription himself. ' Judge 
Marshall's Life of Washington^ published in 1805, and revised and republished in 
1832, is a standard work. 



WILLIAM ^\^IRT. 

IT has been well observed that "it is the peculiar felicity of our republican in- 
stitutions, that they throw no impediment in the career of merit, but the 
competition of rival abilities." Hundreds of the leading men in our Republic 
have illustrated the truth of this sentiment, and none more so than the accom- 
plished William Wirt. Ho was born at Bladensburg, in Maryland, on the 18th 
of November, 1772, and was left a poor orphan at an early age. His j^aternal 
uncle took charge of him, and at the age of seven years he was placed in a school 
at Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. From his eleventh until his fifteenth 
year he was at the same school in Montgomery county, continuousl}^, where he 
was taught the Latin and Greek languages, and some natural philosoph}^ He 
there had the advantages of a good library, and improved it ; and as early as 
his thirteenth j^ear, he commenced authorship with promise. Young Wirt was 
a tutor in the family of the late Ninian Edwards, governor of Illinois, for about 
eighteen months. After a brief residence at the South, on account of ill-health, 
he commenced the study of law at Montgomery Court-house, and was licensed 
to practice, in the Autumn of 1792. He commenced his professional career, the 
same year, at Culpepper Court-house, in Virginia, and soon became eminent. 
With vigorous body and intellect, pleasing person and manners, he became a 
fivorite, and married the daughter of an accomplished gentleman (the intimate 
friend of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe) residing near Charlottesville. His 
wife died in 1799, and in deep distress Wirt left the scenes of his late happy life, 
went to Richmond, and was clerk of the House of Delegates during three sessions. 
There he was greatly esteemed for his talents and social accomplishments, and 
he received the appointment, in 1802, of chancellor of the eastern district of 
Virginia. In the Autumn of that year he married an accomplished ,young lady 
of Richmond, and soon resumed the practice of the law. In 1803—4, he wrote 
his beautiful essays under the name of The British Spy, and at about the same 
time he took up his abode in Norfolk. He returned to Richmond, in 1806, and 
the following year he was engaged in the trial of Aaron Burr, for treason. His 
great speecli on that occasion was warmly applauded. He was a member of 
the Virginia legislature, in 1808, and from that time until after the war, ho 

1. Their graves are in the plain cemetery on Shoccoe Hill, Richmond, and the inscription is as follows : 
" John Marshall, son of Thomas and Mary Marshall, was boin on the 24th of September, 1755 ; 
intermarried with Maky Willis Ambler, the 3d of January, 1783 ; departed this life the 6lh day of 
July, 1835." Judge Marshall was an exceedingly plain man, in person and habits. He always canied 
his own marketing home in his hands. On one occasion, a young housekeeper was swearing lustily 
because he could not hire a person to carry his turkey home for him. A plain man .standing by, 
offered to perform the service, and when they arrived at the door, the young man asked, " What shall I 
pay you?" " Oh, nothing," replifd the old man, "yon are welcome: it was on my way, and no 
trouble."- "Who is that polite old gentleman who brought home my turkey for me?" inquired the 
young man of a bystander. " That," he replied, " is John Marshall, chief justice of the United States.'" 
The astonished young man exclaimed, " Why did he bring home my turkey?" " To give yon a seveio 
reprimand," replied the other, "and to learn you to attend to your own business." The lesson was 
never forgotten. 



WILLIAM HULL. 219 



pursued his profession successfullj^ In the Winter of 1811-'18, ho removed to 
Washington city, having received, from Mr. Monroe, the appointment of Attor- 
ney-general of the United States. He held that office through three presidential 
terms, and at the end of Mr. Adams' administration, he made Baltimore his 
residence. In 1832, he was nominated by the Anti-Masonic party for President 
of the United States, but received the majority of the electoral votes in only one 
State — Vermont. During 1833 he was engaged in founding a colony of Germans, 
in Florida. It proved a failure. In January following he attended the Supreme 
Court at Washington, and his feebleness of health was then very much increased 
by hearing of the death of his eldest daughter. A severe cold hastened the 
progress of his disease, and on the 18th of February, 1834, he expired, at the 
age of sixty-three years. His Life of Patrick Henry is the most brilliant of the 
published productions of his pen. 



WILLIAM HULL. 

" T CAIST wait," said the great and good Lavater, when an enemy assailed his 
1 character. Many injured men have been compelled to wait, and finally to 
go into the grave without the solace of vindication; yet posterity, more just 
than cotemporaries, usually render a righteous judgment. General William 
Hull, a brave patriot of the Revolution, waited many long years for a vindica- 
tion of his character from the imputations of cowardice, and even of treason, 
uttered by a judicial verdict and the prejudices of public opinion. Long after 
lie fell asleep in death, his vindication was made complete. He was a native 
of Derby, Connecticut, where he was born on the 24th of June, 1153. He 
acquired physical vigor while a youth, by farm labor, and at the age of fifteen 
years he entered Yale College, as a student. He was graduated with u^ual 
honors, in 1772. His parents designed him for the ministry, but on leaving 
college he became tutor of a school, for awhile, then reluctantly began the study 
of Divinity, and finally became a student in the Law School at Litchfield, Con- 
necticut. He was successful, and was admitted to the bar, in 1775. He was 
soon afterward elected captain of a militia company, and joined the army under 
Washington, at Cambridge. He continued with Washington during the siege 
of Boston, and the subsequent operations in the vicinity of New York and in 
New Jersey. He acted as field officer in the battle at Trenton, and soon after- 
ward Washington promoted him to major in a Massachusetts regiment. Ho 
behaved bravely in the battle at Princeton. In the following May he marched 
some recruits to Ticonderoga, and was active during the Summer and Autumn 
of that year, until Burgoyne was humbled at Saratoga. In the battles on that 
occasion, he was particularly distinguished. He suffered at Valley Forge, fought 
at Monmouth, and in the Autumn was in command of a regiment, first at Pouglu 
keepsie, and then at White Plains. He was at the capture of Stony Point, in 
the Summer of 1779, and he was soon afterward promoted to the rank of lieuten- 
ant-colonel. His services now became multifarious, and until the close of the 
war, he was regarded by General Washington as one of his most useful officers. 
When, after the treaty of peace, in 1783, the British still retained possession 
of several frontier forts, in violation of the stipulations of that treaty. Colonel 
Hull was sent to Quebec, by the United States government, to make a formal 
demand upon the governor-general of Canada for their immediate surrender. On 
his return, he made his residence at Newton, Massachusetts; and, in 1786, he 
waa one of General Lincoln's volunteer aids in quelling tho insurrection known 



220 ABllAHAM WHIPPLE. 



as Shaifs Rebellion. He was also very active in civil affairs. In 1793, ho vas 
appointed a commissioner to make arrangements with the British government 
to hold a treaty ^vith the Western Indians. He visited England and France, in 
1798, and soon after his return, was honored with the office of judge of the 
court of Common Pleas, and the commission of major-general in the militia of 
Massachusetts. He was also elected a State Senator, and was employed in 
various public duties until 1805, when Congress appointed him governor of the 
Michigan Territory. He held that office when war was declared against Great 
Britain, in 1812, at v/hicli time he was at the head of an army, marching to 
crush the power of hostile Indians. He was immediately commissioned one of 
the four brigadiers to assist G-eneral Dearborn, the commander-in-chief In the 
comparatively weak fort at Detroit, he was invested by a strong force of British 
and Indians ; and, to save his command from almost certain destruction, he sur- 
rendered the fort, his army of two thousand men, and the Territory, to the enemy. 
Eor this he was tried for treason and cowardice, and being unable to produce 
certain official testimony v\^hich subsequently vindicated his character, he was 
found guilty of the latter, and sentenced to be shot. The President of the United 
States, "in consideration of his age and revolutionary services," pardoned him, 
but a cloud was upon his fame and honor. He published a vindicatory memoir, 
in 1824, which changed public opinion in his favor. Yet he did not live long to 
enjoy the effects of that change. Pie died at Newton, on the 29th of November, 
1825, at the age of seventy-two years. A Memoir of General Hull, by his 
daughter and grandson, was published in 1848. It fully vindicates the charactei' 
of the injured patriot, by documentary evidence. 



Y 



ABRAHAM ^VHIPPLE» 

OU, Abraham Whipple, on the 17th of June, 1772, burned his majesty's 
vessel, the Gaspe, and I will hang you at the yard arm. 

" James Wallace." 
" To Sir James Wallace : 

" Sir, — Always catch a man before you hang him. 

"Abraham WnipPLE." 

Such was the correspondence between two opposing naval commanders in Nar- 
raganset Bay, in the Summer of 1775. Whipple Avas a native of Providence, 
situated at the head of that bay, where he was born in 1733. He received very 
little education, and from earliest youth his life was spent chiefly upon the ocean. 
He was in the merchant service for many years, and at the age of twenty-seven 
ho was commander of a privateer named The Game Cock. During a single 
cruise, in 1760, he took twenty -three French prizes. When the colonists and 
the mother government quarrelled. Captain Whipple espoused the cause of his 
countrymen, and was among those who committed the first overt act of rebel- 
lion, in New England, in the burning of the British armed schooner, Gasp'', 
above alluded to.* Captain Whipple sailed on a trading voyage to the West 
Indies soon afterward, and did not return until 1774. 

1. The Gaspe was stationed in Narraganset Bay to enforce the revenne laws. While chasing an 
American vessel up the bay, it ran aground on a sandy shoal. Captain Whipple and a number of sea- 
men went down the bay on the night of the 17th of June, boarded the schooner, captured the commander 
and crew, and then burned the vessel. Notwithstanding a commission was appointed to investigate the 
affair, and a large reward was offered for the perpetrators, their names were not made known until war 
with Great Britain had actually commenced. 



ABEAHAM WHIPPLE. 



221 




In the Spring: of 1775, Sir James 17011300, in command of the British frigate 
Rose^ blockaded Narraganset Bay. TJie legislature of Rhode 1&1 lud fitted out 
two vessels for the purpose of driving the intruder av/ay. Tl.ese vi^erc under 
the general command of AVhipple, and he soon expelled Wallace from the Ehodo 
Island waters. In this business Whipple hatl the Iionor of firing the first gun 
in the naval service of the Revolution.^ In the Autumn following, Captain 
Whipple was ordered on a cruise to the Bermudas, to seize powder, but Avas 
unsuccessful. In December, he received a commander's commission, from Con- 
gress; and, in February, 177G, he sailed on a cruise in the squadron of Con.- 
modore Hopkins, the naval commander-in-chief. From that time until the fall 
of Charleston, in May, 1780, he was in active service. There he was in conunand 
of quite a strong, but inadequate naval force, all of which remaining above water. '■* 
became spoils for the victors. For two years and seven months ho remained a 
prisoner on parole, in Pennsylvania, when he was exchanged. He left the ser- 
vice, in 1782, and was allowed to go almost entirely unrequited to a citizen's 



1. A British vessel had heen caphirerl at Machias earlier than this, but no authority had been given for 
thj act. Whipple was the first to act legaUy. 

2. Whipple sunk several of his vessels" to prevent British ships from going up the Cooper livei 
chaunel. 



222 DANIEL MORGAN. 



duty. He took command of a merchant slyp, and had the honor of first unfurl- 
ing the American flag in the river Thames, at London. He was elected to a 
seat in the Rhode Island legislature, in 1786. On the formation of the Ohio 
company, he emigrated to the wilderness, in company with General Rufus Put- 
nam, and was among the founders of Marietta. He was then fifty-five years of 
age. Tlie threatening savages that liung around this settlement until the peace 
negotiated with the Indians, in 1795, called into action the great resources of 
his genius, and he was of essential service to the colony. After that treaty of 
peace, he moved to a small farm on the banks of the Muskingum, where ho 
struggled on in poverty until 1811, when Congress granted him the half-pay of 
a naval captain.' His future years were thus made to him seasons of ease and 
absence from care. They were few, however, for he was seventy-eight years of 
age when tardy justice awarded its benefits. Commodore Whipple died near 
Marietta, on the 29th of May, 1819, at the age of eighty-five years. Over his 
grave, at Marietta, is a neat stone, bearing an appropriate inscription. 



DANIEL M O 11 a A N . 

" A H, people said old Morgan never feared — they thought old Morgan never 
J\ prayed — they did not know — old Morgan was oft:n miserably afraid." 
So talked that "thunderbolt of war" — the "brave Morgan, who never knew 
fear," as the chronicler said — to his children and neighbors when they sat and 
listened to his thrilling stories of the campaigns for freedom."^ Ho was of Welsh 
descent, and was born in Pennsylvania, in the year 1736. His family were in 
humble circumstances, and his education was only such as could be acquired at an 
ordinary country school, at that time. At the ago of seventeen he wandered into 
Virginia, and there became a wagoner for one cf the wealthy planters in Fred- 
erick county. He owned a team when Braddock marched to the fatal field of 
the Monongahela, and ho accompanied that expedition as a bearer of supplies. 
For alleged insult to a British officer, ho I'eceived five hundred lashes almost 
without flinching. A few days afterward the officer became convinced of tl:e 
injustice of the charge, and apologized to young Morgan, in the presence of tho 
whole regiment. His love for British officers was never very ardent afterword ; 
and when they became his foes on the field, the remembrance of that degrading 
punishment gave strength to his arm and keenness to his blade. 

In 1756, Morgan was commissioned an ensign in the provincial arm_y, because 
of his military skill and service in tho former campaign, and then he first be- 
came acquainted with Washington. From that time until the Revolution com- 
menced, he was much in service against the Indians; and tradition tells a 
hundred tales of his great daring. In 1774, he owned a fine farm in Frederick 
county, and that year he was in Dunmore's expedition beyond the Alleghanies. 
In May, 1775, Congress appointed him a captain, and in less than a week there- 
after, ninety-six men — the nucleus of his celebrated rifle corps — were enrolled 
under his banner, and were on their way to Boston. Ho led the van of Arnold's 
wonderful expedition from the Kennebeck to tho St. Lawrence, in the Autumn 

1. In th3 year ISOO. the veteran sailor was permi'tod to breathe the salt air of the ocean once again. 
Some enterprising men at Marietta built a square-rigged vessel tliere, named it St. Clair, and, loading it 
with pork and flour, sent it to Havana. Commodore Whipple was appointed its commander, and he 
performed the voyage successfully. He thus had the honor of navigating the first vessel that ever sailed 
from the oliio to the (rulf. 

2. He said that before the assault on Quebec, where Montgomery was killed, he knelt by the side of a 
cannon and prayed fervently ; and when, at the Cowpens, he was compelled to fight the superior force 
of Tarleton, he went aside, before the battle, and prayed earnestly for his country, his army, and him- 
self, and then, in his rough way, cheered on his men. 



LEONAP.D CALVERT. 223 



of 1*7 15 ; and in the siege of Quebec, he led the forlorn hope of Arnold's division. 
When Arnold was wounded there, Morgan took command, fought desperately, 
and was made prisoner.' When exchanged, he was commissioned a colonel in 
the Continental army, and from that time Washington considered Morgan's rilio 
corps the right arm of his forces. lie was the chief iustrum.ent in the capture 
of Burgoyne, in the Autumn of 1777 ; and because of his brilliant achievements 
on that occasion, his neighbors called his fine estate "Saratoga." He received 
the commission of brigadier, and was one of the most active oQcers in the Southi^rn 
campaigns. His military glory culminated when, on the I7tli of January, 1781, 
ho defeated the British, under Tarleton, at the Cowpens, west of the Broad 
river, in South Carolina. For that achievement Congress awarded him the 
thanks of the nation, and a gold medal. In consequence of the infirm state of 
his health, he then left the service, and retired to his farm, where he devoted 
himself to agricultural pursuits. Washington desired him to be placed at the 
head of the expedition against the AVestern Indians, in 1791, but St. Clair was 
chosen. In 179-1, he commanded the troops in Western Pennsylvania, designed 
to secure the power over the whiskey insurgents, obtained by General Lee. Ho 
was elected to Congress the same year, where he served two sessions. He re- 
moved to Winchester, Virginia, in the year 1800, where, after confinement to 
his house and bed by extreme debility, he expired, on the Gth of July. 1802, in 
the sixty-sixth year of his ago. His remains rest beneath a marble slab, ap- 
propriately inscribed, in the Presbyterian grave-yard at Winchester. 



LEONARD CALVERT. 

ALTHOUGPI George Calvert, who was created Lord Baltimore by James the 
First of England, was the founder of Maryland, yet the chief honor is due 
to his younger son, Leonard, because he led the first colony thither, planted it, 
and laid the broad foundations of that commonwealth, in social and political i:> 
stitutions. He was born about the year 1606, when his father was clerk of the 
Privy Council under the patronage of Robert Cecil, James' Secretary of State, 
His father died in April, 1632, just before his patent for Maryland had possessed 
the seals of office. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Cecil. The charter wa? 
completed in June, 1632, and Leonard Calvert, with about two hundred persons 
of good families, all of the Roman Catholic faith, reached Old Point Comfort, 
near the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, in February, 1634, He was appointed 
governor of the colony which he was sent to plant. As they passed up the bay, 
and entered the broad Potomac, Calvert fired a cannon, erected a cross, and took 
possession of the country "in tlie name of the Saviour of the world and of the 
Icing of England." At the mouth of a creek on the north side of the Potomac, 
the settlers pitched their tents, founded a town which they called St. Mary's, 
named the creek St, George, and there began the noble business of building up 
a free State in the wilderness. They dealt justly with the natives, and pros- 
pered. To every emigrant, fifty acres of land, in fee, were granted ; and, ac- 
cording to the terms of the charter, every person who professed a belief in the 
Trinity, of whatever sect, Protestant or Roman Catholic, was allowed full priv- 
ilege to worship as he pleased. This toleration was a noble feature in that first 
charter of Maryland, and is very properly regarded with pride by the descendants 
of those early colonists, 

1. While a prisoner, he was urged to accept the commission of a colonel in the Britdsk army, but he 
indignantly refused it. 



224 NOAH WEBSTEE. 



Governor Calvert built himself a commodious house at St. Mary's, and was 
managing the affairs of the province with pi^ideuce and energy, when the civil 
war in England, which resulted in the death of King Charles and the exaltation 
of Oliver Cromwell to the scat of chief magistrate of the realm, disturbed the 
repose of all the Anglo-American colonies. Lord Baltimore was deprived of his 
proprietary rights, and Governor Calvert was superseded by a Protestant ap- 
pointed by the Parliament. Ho then retired to Virginia. In 1G46, after on 
absence of almost two years, he returned, with a military force, and recovered 
possession cf the province. In April, 1647, he issued a general pardon, pro- 
ceeded to St. Mary's to lirmly reestablish good government there, and sat down 
in the midst of an alTcctionate and loyal people, to enjoy coveted repose. A 
longer and more profound rest was near, for, on the Oth cf Juno following, Le 
died, at ihe age of about foi'ty-one years. 



NOAH WEBSTEIi. 

" TJE laught millions to read, but not one to sin," was the glorious and com- 
IT prehensive eulogy awarded to the memory of Noah Webster, the great 
lexicographer. He was maternally descended from Wihiani Bi'adford, the second 
govornor of the Plymouth colony, and paternally from John Webster, who was 
governor of Connecticut, in 1G56. Ho Vv\as born in West Hartford, Connecticut, 
on the 16th of October, 1758, at the very time when Wasliington was leading 
his brave Virginians to the capture of Fort du Quesue. He acquired his early 
education at a district school, and at the age of sixteen years entered the fresh- 
man class in Yale College. The murir.urs of the storm cf the Revolution were 
then becoming louder and louder, and, during the four years of his collegiate 
course, his studies were frequently interrupted by the disturbances of current 
events. In the Autumn of 1777, he joined the army of volunteers that flocked 
from New England to the camp of Gates, and ho participated in the capture of 
Burgoyno and his arm}'. He then resumed his studies, and wa's graduated in 
1778. He commenced life as teacher of a district school in Hartford, with one 
dollar in his pocket, but a noble capital of industry, a good education, and an 
indomitable v/ill. He studied law during leisure hours, and was admitted to 
practice, in 17 SI. Finding little to do in his profession, he went to Goshen, in 
New York, and there opened a high school, which ho called The Farifner'^s Eall 
Academy. 

While studying law, Mr. Webster perceived the many defects in the Ecglish 
language, and in resolving to improve it, he formed the great purpose of his life, 
the compilation of a Dictionary. He first prepared an elementary work, wliich 
he submitted to several members of the Congress, in 1783, and then publisl.cd 
it, at Hartford. It was soon followed by two others, and the whole compristd a 
spelling-book, an English grammar, and a reader. At least twenty millions of 
Webster's Spehing-book have already [1854] been sold in the United States, end 
the sale is still great. After the Revolution, Mr. Webster wrote essays en se^ oral 
national subjects, and he cooperated with Dr. Ramsay in procuring a copyright 
law for the protection of American authors. He ably supported the Federal 
Constitution, with his pen ; and he established a daily newspaper in the city of 
New York, devoted to the administration of President Washington. After en 
gaging in other newspaper enterprises in that city, he removed to New Haver, 
in 1798, and there commenced the preparation of his first Dictionary. It was 
published in 1806, and in the Preface, he publicly announced that he had now 



NOAH WEBSTER. 



225 




y^im^ 



entered upon the great work of his hfe. That was at a time when a growing 
family and slender pecuniary means appeared great obstacles; but he possessed 
an iron will, and his spirit was undaunted- He toiled on in the midst of many 
discouragements; and, in 1812, he made his abode at Amherst, Massachusetts, 
where his family expenses were less. He returned to New Haven, in 1822, and 
the Faculty of Yale College then conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of 
Civil Law. He was yet engaged in his groat labor, and, in pursuit of his object, 
he went to Europe in 1824, and spent a year in the collection of materials. Hia 
mighty task was completed in 1827; and, in 1828, his American DicUonanj, the 
greatest work of its kind ever undertaken, was published. It was soon after- 
ward republished in England, and at once took an exalted position in the world 
of letters, and gave its author great renown. An enlarged edition, carefully 
r3vised by the author, was published in 1841 ; and so he left it, a precious legacy 
to his country and mankind. During the long j^ears \\\ which Dr. Webster was 
engaged on his Dictionary he was no recluse, but was a practicing lawyer, an 
agriculturist, a legislator, and an academician. His old age, after a life of grer.t 
activity, was serene, for the pure liglit of Christianity rested in beauty upon llie 
good man's path. When his physician told him he must die, he replied, "I am 
ready;" and on the 28th of May, 1843, he went quietly to his rest, in the eighty- 
fifth year of his age. His Dictionary is rapidly approaching the position of 
highest authority, especially among men of purest taste and most comprehensive 
knowledge. 

1« 



226 ISRAEL PUTNAM. 



ISRAEL PUTNAM. 

FULL of romance and stirring interest was the career of General Putnam, the 
hero of two wars, of whom Dr. Lacld said, " He seems to have been almost 
obscured amidst the glare of succeeding worthies ; but his early and gallant 
services entitle him to everlasting remembrance." And the same pen wrote — 

" Hail, Putnam ! hail, thon voncratle name, 
Though dark oblivion Uiroats thy mighty fame, 
It threats in vain — for long shalt ihou be known. 
Who first in virtue and in battle shone." 

Israel Putnam was bom at Salem, Massachusetts, on the Yth of January, 1718 
He was descended from one of the first settlers of that ancient New England 
town. His education was neglected, and ho grew to manhood with a vigorous 
but uncultivated mind. Ho delighted in athletic exercises, and generally bore 
the palm among his fellows. At the age of twenty-one years he commenced the 
life of a farmer, in Pomfrct, Connecticut,' where he "pursued the even tenor of 
his way" until 1755, when he was appointed to the command of a company of 
Connecticut troops, destined for the war with the French and Indians on the 
northern frontier. He performed essential service under General Johnson at 
Lake George and vicinity during that campaign ; and the following year ho had 
command of a corps of Rangers, and bore the commission of a captain in the 
provincial army. He had many stirring adventures in the neighborhood of Lake 
Champlain. In August, 1758 (then bearing a major's commission), he was near 
the present TVliitehall, at the head of the lake, Avatching the movements of the 
enemy, and had a severe encounter with the French and Indians, in the forest. 
Putnam was finally made prisoner, and the savages tied him to a tree, and pre- 
pared to roast him alive. A shower of rain and the interposition of a French 
officer, saved his life, and ho was taken to the head-quarters of the enemy at 
Ticonderoga. From tlience he was sent, a prisoner, to Montreal, in Canada, 
where, through the kindness of Colonel Peter Schuyler, of Albany (who was also 
a prisoner), ho was humanely treated. The following Spring ho was exchanged, 
and retunied home. Ho jomed the army again, soon afterward, and was pro- 
moted to lieutenant-colonel. He was a bold and efficient leader during the 
remainder of the war, and then he returned to his plow and the repose and ob- 
scurity of domestic life in rural seclusion. 

Colonel Putnam was an active friend of tho people when disputes with govern- 
ment commenced ten years before war was kindled ; and when tho inteUigenco 
of bloodshed at Lexington reached liim, while plowing in tho Geld, he had no 
pohtical scruples to settle, but, unyoking his oxen, he started, with his gun and 
rusty sword, for Boston. Ho soon returned to Connecticut, raised a regiment, 
and hastened back to Cambridge, then the head-quarters of a motley host that 
had hurried thither from tho hiUs and valleys of New England. When, six 
weeks afterward, Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of the Con. 
tinental army, Putnam was chosen to be one of four major-generals created on 
that occasion. Ho performed bravely on Bunker's Hill before his commission 
reached him, and from that time, throughout the whole struggle until the close 
of 1779, General Putnam was a faithful and greatly-esteemed leader. His ser- 

1. Daring one night, a -wolf that had been depredating in the neighborhood for some time, killed sever.ty 
of his fine sheep and goats. It was ascertained to be a she-wolf, and Putnam and his neighbors turned 
out ;o hunt and destroy her. She was driven into a rocky cave, and at ten o'clock nt night, Putnam, 
with a rop3 fastened tohis leg, descended into the den with agnn and torch, and souglit out ar.d boldly shot 
the depredator. Then giving a concerted signal, he was drawn up hy the rope. Ho again descended, 
seized the dead wolf by the ears, and was again drawn up amid the cheers of his companions, who were 
waiting in exultation, in the moonlight above. 



MARY PHILIPSE. 227 



vices were too Dumerous to be detailed here — they are all recorded iii on' 
country's annals, and lemembered by every student of our history. At 
W^sc Point, on the Hudson, his military career was concluded. Late iu 
1779, ho 8Pt out to visit his family in Connecticut, and on the ^ay ho 
suffered a partial paralysis of his system, which impaired both his mind 
and body. At his home in Brooklyn, Connecticut, he remained an in- 
valid the remainder of his days". Witli Chrisiina resianation,i and the 
fL-riitude of a courageous man, he bore his affliciions for more than leu 
yeais, and then, at the clone of the beautilul budding month of Mny 
(29th), 1790, the veteran hero died, at the ae-e of seventy-two years. His 
Memoir, prenared by Colonel David Humphreys, from narratives uttered 
by the patriot's own lips, was first published, by order of the State So- 
ciety of the Cincinna:i of ConnecHcut, in 1788, and afterwards published 
in Humphrey's collected wriuntrs, in 1790. A neat monument, hearing 
''n epitaph, is over Ms grave in Brooklyn, Connecticut. 



MAHY PHILIPSE. 

THE heautiful and accomplished American girl of twenty-six Shimmers, 
who won the first love < f Waishington just when his greatness was 
dawning, is worthy of the bistcric embalmer's care, for she forms a part 
of the story of the great central figure in the group of American worthies 
of the past generations. Mary Phiiipso was the daughter of the Honor- 
ableFje'Jerick Philipse, Speakt^r of tbeX-^w York Cohmial Assembly, and 
one of the early great landholders on the Huds. n river, iu Westchester 
county. She was h.ru at the m ire modern manor house of the family, in 
the present village of Yonkers,^ on the 3d of July, 1730. Of her early life 
we have no record except the testimony which her accomplishmeots bore 
concerning her careful education. Her sister was the wife of Colonel 
Beverly Kobinson, of New York, and there Miss Philipse was residinsr 
wben she made the acquaintance of Washington, above alluded to. It 
was in the memorable year, 1756, when th^ whole country was excited 
by the current events of the French and Indian war. Washington was a 
Virginia colonel, tweuty-tour years of age, and bad won his first bright 
laurels at the Great Madows and the field of Monongahela. On account 
of difficulties concerning rank, he visited the commander-in-chief, Gov- 
ernor Shirley, at Boston, audit was while oa his way thither, on horse- 
hack, that he stopped at the house of Colonel Robinsoo, ia New York. 
There be saw the beautiful Mary Philipse, and his young heart was 
touched by her charms, He left her with reluctance and went on to 
Boston. On his return, he ¥;aa again the willing guest of Colonel Robin- 
son, aud he lingered there, iu the society of Mary, as long as duty would 
allow. Ir, is believed that he offered her his hand, but a rival bore 
off thenrize. That rival was Colonel Roger Morris, Washingioi's com- 
panion-in arms on the bloody field of Monongahela, and one of Brad, 
dock's aid?, on that occasion, Roger and Mary were married, iu 1758, 
and lived in great happiness until the stoim of the Revuluticn deso 
Jated their home. Colonel Morris then ospons^d the cau-e of the king; 
and when the American army, under Washington, was encanped un 

1. General Putnam was a -professing Christian and member of the Conffrejiatinnal 
Chiiicli at Brooklyn. It is said that after the war he arose in the cong-resation ai.d 
apolO;'4zf'd for sweaiinj:? pretty severely on Bunker's HiU, when he coulii not induce 
the timid militia to follow him to reinforce Prescott m the assailed redoubt on Breed's 
Hill. " It was a'mosfi f noiigh to make an angel swear," he said, " to see the cowards 
reluse to secure a victory so nearly won." 

2 That old monor-houi-e, over a centnry and » quarter old, is yet stanfing (1881) and 
is well preserved in its orij/inal form and condition. It is used for public purposes by 
the municipality of Yonkers. 



228 THOMAS PAINE. 



Harlem Heights, iu the Autumn of 1*176, his beautiful mansion, overlooking the 
Harlem river, became the head-quarters of the commander-in-chief. Both Colonel 
Morris and his wife were included in the act of attainder, passed by the New 
York legislature, in 1178. It is believed that she, and her sister Mrs. Inglis, 
were the only females who were attainted of treason during the struggle. A 
large portion of their real property was restored to their children, of whom John 
Jacob Astor purchased it, in 1809, for one hundred thousand dollars, and after- 
ward sold it to the State of New York for half a million, i Colonel Morris died 
in England, in 1794, at the age of sixty-seven years, and his wife lived a widow 
thirty-one years afterward. She died, in 1825, at the ago of ninety-six, and 
was buried by the side of her husband, near Saviour-gate church, York, where 
their son, Henry Gage Morris, of the royal army, erected a monument to thcu" 
memory. 



THOMAS PA INK. 

I7EW men nave ever received so large a share of the odium of common public 
opinion (which Hood defined as "the average prejudice of mankind") as 
Thomas Paine, whose pen was almost as powerful in support of the republican 
cause in the early years of the Revolution, as was the sword of Washington ; bo- 
cause it gave vitality to that latent national sentiment which formed the necessary 
basis ot support to the civil and military power then just evoked by the political 
exigencies of the American people. He was a native of Thetford, England, 
where he was born, in 1737. He was bred to the business of stay-maker, car- 
ried on by his flither, but his mind could not long be chained to the narrsw esn- 
ployment of fashioning whale-bone and buckram for the boddices of ladies. He 
sought and obtained an interview with Dr. Franklin, when that statesman first 
went to England as agent for Pennsylvania, and by his advice Paine came to 
America, in 1774, and at once employed his powerful pen in the cause of the 
aroused colonies. Many of his articles appeared in Pcrmsylvania papers, over 
the signature of Common Seyise; and at the beginning of 1770, he wrote a pam- 
phlet, at the suggestion of Dr. Rush, bearing that expressive title. It was the 
earliest and most powerful public appeal in favor of the independence of the 
colonies, and did more, probably, thaii any other instrumentality, to fix that idea 
firmly in the minds of the people. Within a hundred days after its appearance, 
almost every provincial assembly had spoken in favor of independence.^ Paine 
also commenced a series of papers called The Crisis, the first number of which 
was written in the camp of Washington, near the Delaware, at the close of 1776. 
They were issued at intervals, during the war. In the Spring of 1777, Paine 
was appointed, by Congress, Secretary to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, with 
a salary of seventy dollars a month. It was a position of great trust and respon- 
Mbility, and he performed the duties satisfactorily until 1779, when, in a public 
dispute with Silas Deane, he revealed some secrets of his bureau, and was threat- 
ened with dismissal. He at once resigned his office, but remained a firm friend 
to his adopted country. After the war, he used his pen for a livehhood; and in 
1790, he visited his native country. There he wrote his Rights of Man, which 

1. This purchase was necessary to quiet the occupants of (he land iu their possession, for they had 
purchased from the commissioners under llie confiscation act. 

2. So highly was that essay esteemed, that the legislature of Pennsylvania voted the author twenty-five 
hundred dollars. Washington reearded it as his most powerful aid. In a letter to Joseph Reed, he 
said, " By private letters which I have lately received from Virginia, I find that Common Sense is work- 
iug a powerful change there in the minds of many men." 



THOMAS PAINE. 



229 




©ffendb.i j>t3 o:overnment, and he went to Paris on the eve of the French Rovo- 
latio:i. H3 participated in the opening scenes of that struggle, was made a 
menaor of tho National Assembly, and finally, having offended the Jacobins, he 
was imprisoned and sentenced to the guillotine. While in prison, he wrote the 
chief portions of his Afje of Reason. He escaped death by a seeming accident.^ 
Ill 1802, he returned to America, and resided a part of the time upon a farm at 
New Ilochclle, presented to him by the State of New York, for his revolutionary 
services. Paine became very intemperate, and fell low in the social scale, not 
only on account of his beastly habits, but because of his blasphemous tirade 
against Christianity. His Age of Reason is a coarse and vindictive assault upon 
revealed religion, exhibiting neither sound logic nor honest argument. The 
corruptions of Christianity as he saw them in France and England, at that time, 
a^brd e-vXcnuating apologies for his vindictiveness. Had Thomas Paine lived at 
t'.ils day, ho would never have written his Age of Reason and other libels upon 
CroJ and humanity. As a patriot of truest stamp, his memory ought to be rc- 
vo;'od — as an enemy to that religion on which man's dearest hopes are centered, 
ho i3 to be pitied and condemned. 

Mrl Paine died in Now York, in 1809. Jarvis, the painter, took an impression 
of his face in plaster, after his death. That impression is now in possession of 
the New York Historical Society. His friend and admirer, WiUiam Cobbett, 

1. He was paved by a singular providence. Every night an officer passed alonjj the rows of cells 
in the prison, and with a piece or chalk marked the doors tiom which prisoiicrj v/ero to be taken 
to the sja2olJ. Paiue's door happened to be open at the tiai«, and it v.as i..aiked en the inside , 
when it was closed tor the night tlie fatal sign was not vi ible, and ho escaped. 



230 THOMAS PINCKNEY. 



ha'l his bones exhumed, and conveyed to England; and ia 1839, bis 
fiieudsin political and religious sentiment erec'e ! a beauiiful menu nenfc 
t ) his memory over his emptied grave, near Nf^ Roch< I'e, on wbic^i is 
inscribed, b^nealh a medalbon bust, " Thomas Paine, Author of Com- 
mon Sense." 



THOMAS PICKNEY. 

WEbave alrea'^y considered the career of Charles Cotesx-orth Pinc'"- 
ney, one of tbe noblest of South Carolina's mauv noble sorrs. He 
bad an accomplished brother, four years his juoicr, wbo bore a con^oicu- 
ouspartio tbe great strus-gle for indepen 'en j*^, an ' honored the diplo- 
macy of his couuliy. Thomas Pinc'iney was born at Charleston, o-^ tbe 
23d of October, 1750, P^\)d at Ti'e as-e ot three jear^ was tviken 1o Eng- 
Jaruj, witu his brr*(her Cbarks, to bo educated. Tbere be qtp^ f^ man- 
hood, chose his lif^- pursuit, acquired ihe proper p'eporat ly Mno^ledgo, 
an(J, after an abs-' ce o^" twenty .vpais, retuu^d t > bis native Imd. 1\ 
early bov ho d he felt a mar: ial spirit sfirrins within him. ItgiewwiMi 
bis growth, and bis siudits were olm^s^, exclusively military, cu his ar- 
rival home. H'^ b^-cuiie a thorouL'h tactifi ^n in theory, ard, on the 
irtianization of a milirary foirf>in Its native city, he was inlrust'^d with 
tbe command of a c mpaxiy. He was a rigid disciplinarian, y. t his men 
all l)ved him. He s on rose to the rank < f major, and was very active 
in recruiting and di-ciplinirg the miiiia, until the anival of General 
Line( lu, in 1779, as commander- in~cbi f of t''«> Somhetn armv. Liocolu 
appointed Mjijoc Pijckney one of bis aids, and iu tbat cap-^city be was 
euyage'l in the sieae of Savannah, in tbe Autumn r f that >e^r. Several 
months previ usly, \ e hid gained gr^at applause for his gollivjtry in the 
battle at Stouo Fer y, just below Cbarl'sion. Ho was njt am^ne the 
captives at Cbarlesiop, in May, 1780; and uhen Gates took command of 
the Southern army, Pinckuey -was appoiut^d bis aid. H*^ fough*^^ gal- 
lantly at the battle near Camiien, in August, and th-re bad bis leg badly 
shattered by a musket ball. He could not ret' eat, and wjs made a pris- 
oner and sent to New York. His wound disabled him during the r<^st rf 
tbe war, and he remained in private life until 1787, when he was elec'ed 
to succeed General M >ultrie as g )vernor of South C^irolina. He disp1a^ ed 
statesmanship of the highest O'der; a <', in 1792, Presifient Wa^bins/tou 
appointed him mi i^ter plenipotentia'y to tbe British court. He u'an 
aged tbe complicated and important affai-s of his mission with g'e;;t 
still. Towards the close or 1794, Mr. Piuc>iney was appointed minieti i- 
to Spain, and took up his residence at Madrid the following year, H ^ 
soon afierward concluded a treaty with the Spanish court, by which 1 Lo 
free navigaaon of the Missi«*'ippl was secured to tbe people of the U<jited 
States. Ho returned home the following year, to attenrl t ^ his domestic 
atfaiis, and remained in private life uutil tbe proclamation of war with 
Great Britain, in 1812, called many a veteran heio to tbe field. Pr^sideit 
Madison appointed General Pinckney to tbe command ot tbe Southeru 
Department, and it was uuderhis di>ec^ions that Geue'^al Jyfckson euc- 
ces^sfuliy prosecuted j he war with the Indims. His forec^sf; and gen 
ercsity opened to Jackson that milifaiy career which be pursiied so 
gloriously. General Pmckney resiiiu-^d his commission on tbe return of 
peace, and he resumed bis favorite employment — scientiflr agriculture. 
He liv^ed more than thirteen years after tbe peace of 1 815 After a long 
illness, he died, on the 2d of November, 1828, when a little rrore than 
seventy-eight years of aere. General Piackney married a daughter of 
Kebecca Motte, the patriotic widow of the Congaree, whose portrait and 
memoir may be found in another part of this work. 



CORNPLANTER. 231 



CORNPL.ANTER. 

CIENTENARY honors crowned Ga-nio-di-eugh, or the Cornplanter, a chief of 
/ the Seneca nation, who, for seventy-five years, held a conspicuous place in 
the history of his race, as one of the bravest and most eloquent of its warriors. 
He ia supposed to have been born about the year 1735; and he first appears on 
the page of history as the leader of a war party of the Senecas when that nation 
was in alliance witli the French ag-ainst tlie English. He was a participator iu 
the bloody battle in which General Braddock was killed. He was a native of 
Conewaugus, in tlio Genesee Vallc}^, and a half-breed, his father having been a 
white man from the Mohawk region.' Cornplanter was a war-chief of his tribe 
when the Revolution began. Being in the full vigor of manhood, active and 
brave, he was one of the most distinguished of the dusky leaders who spread 
destruction over the white fi-o;iticr settlements in New York, and in the Valley 
of Wyoming. In the bloody forays at Cherry Valley and Wyoming, Cornplanter 
was conspicuous; and during tlie invasion of the Seneca country, by Sullivan, in 
1779, and the fearful vengeance therefor inflicted by the Indians afterward, 
Cornplanter was a chief leader of his people.''^ He was the most inveterate and 
active foe of the Americans during the whole war, but after the treaty of peace 
he became the fast friend of the United States, flo was chiefly instrumental in 
the pacification treaty at Fort Stanwix, in 1784, when Red Jacket opposed him 
with his wonderful eloquence. At the close of the treaty the brave chief said 
significantly, " I thank the Great Spirit for this opportunity of smoking the pipe 
of friendship and love. May wo plant our own vines, be the fathers of our 
children, and maintain them." He was also conspicuous in treaties in Ohio, 
which gave offence to his nation. Hoping to exait himself upon the ruins of 
Cornplanter, Red Jacket fostered the discontent, and the life of the former was 
placed in jeopardy. He repaired to Philadelphia and appUed to President 
Washington for counsel and relief Cornplanter laid a most touching appeal for 
himself and his nation, before the President. The reply was kind, but Wash- 
ington could not go behind treaties. Relief, however, was promised, and Corn- 
planter went back, a happier man. 

During the troubles with the Indians in the north-west, until Wayne's victory 
in 1794, Cornplanter remained neutral; and he was at the council held in the 
Seneca country to treat with Thomas Morris respecting portions of the territory 
afterward known as the Holland Land Purchase. During t!ie years of repose 
wliich followed, Cornplanter was assiduous in endeavors to improve the moral 
character of his nation. He made great efforts to stay the progress of intem- 
perance ; and he was the first and most eloquent of temperance lecturers in 
America.3 He readily assumed many of the habits and pursuits of the white 
men; and having failed to become chief sachem of his nation, through the in- 

1. In his owQ language, ha said, " When I was a child I played with the hutterfly, the grasshopper, 

and the frog The Indian boys took notice of my skin being different in color from theirs, 

and spoke about it. I inquired of my mother ihe cause, and she told me that my father lived in Albany. 
I still ate my victuals out of a bark dish. I grew up to be a young man, and married me a wife, and I 
had no kettle or gun. I then knew where my father lived, and went to see him, and found he was a 
white mam and spoke the English language. He gave me victuals while I was at his house, but when 
I started to return home, he gave me no provision to eat on the way. He gave me neither kettle nor 
gun." 

2. Cornplanter made his father a prisoner, at Fort Plain, but shielded him from all harm, and sent him 
to a place of safety. 

3. While speaking upon this subject, in 1822, Cornplanter said, " The Great Spiiit first made the 
world, next tlie flying animals, and found all things good and prosperous. He is immortal and ever- 
lasting. After finishing the flying animals, he came down to earth, and there stood. Then he made 
different kinds of trees, and woods of all sorts, and people of every kind. He made the Spring and other 
seasons, and the weather suitable for planting. These he did make. But itills to malce ichiskey to give 

tothe Indiam he viv> ifox mal-e The (Jreat Spirit has ordered me to stop drinking, and He 

wishes me to inform the people that they shonld quit drinking intoxicating drinks." 



232 SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 

trigues of Red Jacket, he retired to a large tract of land on the Alleghany river, 
which the legislature had presented to him, ^d there cultivated a farm in ob- 
scurity during the remainder of his long life. When Rev. Timothy Alden visited 
him, in 1816, he was the owner of sixten hundred acres of fine bottom land. 
He was a professing Christian,' though very superstitious. There the old chief 
lived on in quiet obscurity, until he liad passed his hundredth year. He died at 
his residence on the 7th of Marcli, 1836, with a confused notion of being happy 
in the Christian's heaven, or in the elysian fields, pictures of which came down 
upon the tide of memory from his early youth. 



SAMTJEI. L. MITCJtIILi.. 

" 4 MONCt those," says Knapp, " who did not gain all the laurels at home, that 
JLA. ho should have had, while ho was honored by almost every intelligent 
court, and every learned society abroad, was Doctor Mitchill." He was a native 
of North Hempstead, Queen's county, Long Island, where he was born of 
Quaker parents, on the 20th of August, 1704. He was educated by private 
tutors, supplied chiefly by his maternal uncle. Dr. Samuel Latham, whose name 
he bore. That gentleman saw and admired the budding of his geai'as. Young 
Mitchill soon became an excellent classical scholar. Nature wooed him ; and so 
enamored was he of her beauties and hidden wealth, that he became her devotee 
while a lad, and was a philosopher when only t^vcnty years of age. 

Young Mitchill chose the medical profession as a life-pursuit, and commenced 
study with his uncle. In 1780, he was placed under the instructions of Dr. 
Samuel Bard, aad after a little more than three years, he went to Edinburgh, in 
Scotland, then the seat of science, in Great Britain. There he had Thomas 
Addis Emmet and Sir James M'Intosh for his class-mates and friends; and when 
he left the institution, he bore its highest honors. The fame of his acquirements 
preceded him, and when he returned home he was received into the first intel- 
lectual circles in New York. The Faculty of Columbia College gave him the 
degree of Master of Arts. For awhile he turned his attention to constitutional 
law, with the intention of engaging in legislative duties. In 1788, he was one 
of the commissioners who treated with the heads of the Six Nations, at Fort 
Stanwix (now Rome), and obtained from them the cession of Western New 
York. In the meanwhile he practiced his profession, and Avas indefatigable in 
his study of the natural sciences. In 1790, ho was elected to a seat in the New 
York Legislative Assembly; and, in 1792, he was chosen Professor of Chem- 
istry, Natural Sciences, and Agriculture, in Columbia College. He was then 
considered the best naturalist and practical chemist, in America. In 1796, he 
made his fmious report of a raineralogical survey of the State of New York; and 
the followmg year he commenced the publication of the Medical Repository, of 
which he was chief editor for sixteen years. He was the founder (and a long 
lime president) of the Lyceum of Natural History, of New York ; and he took a 
great interest in the New York Historical Society, and kindred insti-tutions. He 
was a special and efficient friend to domestic manufactures and agriculture, and 
was the first, in this country, to apply the science of chemistry to the practical 
pursuit of the latter avocation. As a legislator he was w'se, full of forecast, 
and possessed great boldness and perseverance.^ For his efforts in behalf of 

1 See sketch of Samuel Kirkland. 

2. He was a member of the New York legislature, in 1798, when Chancellor Livingston applied for 
the exclusive right of navigating the waters of the Iladson livcr with boats propelled "by fire or 



SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 



23S 




steam navigation on the Hudson, his name should be associated mth that of 
Fulton, Barlow, and Livingston.^ 

For about twenty years, Dr. Mitchill acted as one of the ph} sicians of the 
New York Hospital. Notwithstanding his immense labors in the field of scien. 
tific research, and his voluminous publications upon almost every variety of 
subjects, he found time to mingle in political strife, and share in the labors and 
honors of official station. He represented the city of New York, in Congress, 
six consecutive years, and was afterward United States Senator. He was pos- 
sessed of vast and varied knowledge; and yet, because he sometimes advanced 



steam." With liis usual forecast. Dr. Mitchill perceived the feasibility of the project, and presented a hill 
accordingly. Everybody ridiculed him. The elder portion of the legislature consif'ered the whole maltei 
too absurd to be seriously entertained, while the younger members, when they desired a little tun, wouia 
call up Dr. Mitehill's " hot water bill," and bandy jokes without stint. Yet the Doctor persevei ed, 
procured the passage of his bill, and had the pleasure of laughing at his persecutors, a tew years aiier- 

f 1. After preparing the sketches of these three men, printed on preceding pages, I was furnished 
with evidence from the correspondence of Barlow (in possession of one of his descendants, who 
intended to arrange them for the press), that Fulton was far i::iore indebted to that friend tor pc~ 
cuniary aid and genei-al encouragement, than to any one e!se. When Livingston first met JjmitGn 
in France, he was dubious concerning the feasibility of his scheme, while Barlow was sanguiiio, 
and was doing ail in his power to assst Fulton. When experiments had furnished actual oemon- 
Bti-ation, and Living.^ton could no longer doubt, then he Icr.t his wealth and influence to Fulton. 
Bai-low was Fulton's btne/actur ; Livingston was his businc:;s partner and friend. 



234 ARTHUE LEE. 



opinions of which the world had not yet dreamed, ho was sneered at by the 
sciolist, and ridiculed by shallow upstarts 'in science. He was thoroughly ap- 
preciated in Europe, where almost every litefary and scientific institution thouglit 
it an honor to enrol his name upon its list of members. Dr. Mitchill died at his 
residence, in New York City, on the Ith of September, 1831, in the sixty-seventh 
year of his age. 



ARTHUR LEE. 

DURING- the early years of the War for Independence, and for many months 
before the flame broke forth in Massachusetts, the American patriots were 
much indebted to secret observers of political men and things in Europe, who 
kept the former continually and accurately informed of passing events. One of 
the most efficient of these observers was Arthur Lee, of Virginia, brother of 
Richard Henry Lee, author of the resolution proposing independence for the 
United States of America. He was born at Stratford, in Westmoreland county, 
Virginia, on the 20th of December. 1740. He was educated in the Edinburgh 
University, where he studied the science of medicine, for some time. On his 
return, he commenced its practice at Williamsburg, then the capital, and centre 
of fashion, of Virginia. In 17G6, while the Americans were yet greatly excited 
concerning the Stamp Act, he went to London, and commenced the study of the 
Jaw, in the Temple. There he formed a close intimacy with Sir Wilham Jones, 
(the eminent Oriental scholar), and many other men of note. During all the 
agitations from that period until the beginning of the war. Dr. Lee kept the 
Americans informed, chiefly through his brother, Richard Henry, of the plans 
and measures of the ministry, and was of essential service to the cause of popular 
liberty in America. He wrote much for the press in favor of the colonies ; and, 
in 1775, he was accredited agent of Virginia, in P>agland. In the Summer of 
that year, he presented the second petition of the American Congress to the 
king; and, in the Autumn of 1776, he was appointed a commissioner of the 
United States at the French court, as colleague of Dr. Franklin and Silas Deane. 
He held that position until 1779, when Franklin was appointed sole minister. 
In the meanwhile. Dr. Lee had been appointed a special commissioner to Spain 
to solicit a loan ; and in the same capacity, and for the same purpose, lie visited 
the capital of Prussia, but the king, unwilling to offend Great Britain, would not 
openly receive him.^ Dr. Lee returned to America, in 1780, when Silas Deano 
was laboring to blacken his character.'- The people behoved in their hitherto 
faithful friend, and, early in 1781, Dr. Lee was elected to a seat in the Houso 
of Burgesses, of Virginia. That body sent him to Congress, where he held a 
seat until 1785. In 1784, he was appointed one of the commissioners to treat 
with the representatives of the Six Nations of Indians, at Fort Schuyler (now 
Rome), and soon afterward he was called to a seat at the Treasury Board. Early 
in 1790, he was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
but his earthly career was almost closed. He purchased a farm near Urbana, 
on the Rappaiiannock, and there he died, on the 14th of December, 1792, at the 
age of almost fifty -two years. 

1. Dr. Lee was successful in his mission to both Spain and Pnissia. Although the King of Prussia 
would not receive him openly, he had continual correspondence with the court, and his brother William 
was a resident agent of the United States there. While in Berlin, his papers were stolen, and he charged 
the British minister, with the theft. The king ordered an investigation, and they were soon secretly re- 
turned. At the request of the Prussian monarch, the BriMsh minister was recalled. Dr. Lee received wa»Ta 
assurances of friendship from the king, and obtained favors for the United States. 

2. See sketch of Deane. 



CHRISTOPHER COLLES. 285 



CHRISTOPtlER COLLES. 

IN that superb Offering of Intellect to Worth and Genius, the Kniclcerhocker 
Gallery,^ published at the close of 1854, Dr. John "W. Francis has given an 
exceedingly interesting sketch of Christopher Colles, a name but little known to 
this generation, while the inlluence of his genius is everywhere felt in the great 
pulsating arteries of our national enterprise, for it was in the highest degree 
suggestive. This kindly embalming by an appreciating hand, has saved a name 
deserving of honor from that forgetfulness which the world too often indulges 
toward genius in linscy-woolse}'. 

Mr. Colles was born in Ireland about the year 1157. Under the care and 
instructions of Richard Pocockc, the celebrated Oriental traveller, he acquired 
mucii scientific knowledge and considerable expertness in the use of different 
languages. His patron died in 17G5, and Colles came to America soon after- 
ward. He first appeared in public here as a lecturer on canal navigation, at 
about the year 1*772 ; and he is unquestionably the first man who suggested, and 
called public attention to the importance of a navigable water-communication 
between the Hudson river and the Lakes. He presented a memorial on the 
subject to the Nevr York State legislature, in the Autunm of 1784, and in AjDril 
folio wiug, a favorable report was made. Colles actually made a survey of the 
Mohawk, and the country to Yf ood creek, by which a water-communication witli 
Oneida and Ontario lakes might be effected. The results of that tour w^erc pub- 
lished in a pamphlet, in 1785. More than ten years before, Colles had matured 
a plan for supplying the city of ]S[ew York with wholesome water, and steps 
were taken for the purpose, when the Revolution interfered. Year after year 
he was engaged in his favorite projects. In 1797, his name appeared among 
applicants for a contract to supply the city of New York with water; and it 
was unquestionably his fertile mind that conceived the idea, then first put forth, 
of obtaining water from Westchester county. The Bronx, instead of the Croton, 
was the proposed fountain of supply. In 1808, he published an interesting 
pamphlet on canals. 

In 1789, Mr. Colles published a series of sectional Road Maps, for the use of 
travellers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia; 
and, in 1794, he issued the first number of '"The Geographical Ledger." But 
these undertakings were far from profitable to him, and he eked out a comfort- 
able subsistence by land-surveying and itinerant public instruction in the various 
branches of practical science. He also constructed band-boxes for a living, 
when he made New York his permanent residence, and frequently assisted al- 
manac makers in their calculations. He manufactured painters' colors, and 
proof-glasses to test the quality of liquors. Finally " we find our ubiquitous 
pliilosopher in good quarters and in wholesome employment," says Dr. Francis, 
as actuary of the American Academy of Fine Arts. lie also made profitable 
exhibitions of a telescope and microscope of his own construction, and had a 
marine telegraph on the Government House at the Bowling-green. These hum- 
ble employments did not lessen him in the esteem of the eminent men of that 
time, who knew and admired tlie profundity of his acquirements ; and De Witt 
Clinton always regarded him as among the most prominent and efficient pro- 
moters of internal improvements. Dr. Mitchill was his warm friend; Jarvis 
thought it an honor to paint his portrait ;'2 and Dr. Hosack commemorated him 

1. A volume comjiosed of contributions from the siirviving writers for Tfie Knickerbocker Magazine. 
and embellished with their portraits. It was prepared as a testimonial of esteem for Lewis GaylorJ 
Clarke, the editor of the Magazine, and for his benefit the profits of the work were devote*'. The 
above sketch is the substance of Dr. Francis* Memoir of Colles. 

2. That picture is in the possession of the New York Historical Society. 



236 THOMAS SUMTEE. 



in his Life of Clinton. And finally, in th^great celebration whieli took place in 
New York, in November, 1825, when the waters of Erie were united with the 
Atlantic, "the effigy of Colles was borne wiih appropriate digwity among the 
emblems of that vast procession." He had then been in the grave four years, 
having gone to his rest in the Autumn of 1821. Of all the people of that great 
city where the inanimate effigy of Colles was so soon to be honored, only tuo be- 
sides the officiating clergyman followed his body to the grave! These honored 
two were Dr. Francis and John Pintard. The Rev. Dr. Creighton (who declined 
the bishopric of New York, in 1852), officiated on the occasion, and the remains 
of Christopher Colles were deposited in the Episcopal burial-ground in Hudson 
Street. No memorial marks the spot, and the place of his grave is doubtless 
forgotten ! 



THOMAS SUMTT:R. 

THE " South Carolina Game-Cock," as Sumter was called, was, next to Marion, 
the most useful of all the southern partisans during the latter part of the 
Revolution. Of liis early life and habits we have no reliable record, and the 
place of his birth is unknown. That event occurred, as some circumstances in- 
dicate, about the year 1734. His name first appears in pubhc as lieutenant- 
colonel of a regiment of riflemen, in March, 1776, and he appears to have been 
in Charleston until within a few days before its surrender to the British, in May, 
1780. He was not among the prisoners, and was doubtless in the vicinity of 
the Catawba, at that time, arousing his countrymen to action. He was in the 
field early in the Summer of 1780, and was actively engaged in paitisan warfare 
with the British and Tories, when Gates approached Camden, in August. At 
the CiOse of July he had attacked the British post at Rocky Mount, on the Ca- 
tawba; and, early in August, he fought a severe battle with the British and 
Loyalists at Hanging Rock. Immediately after the defeat of Gates, Sumter was 
attacked by Tarleton, near the mouth of the Fishing Creek, and his little band 
was utterly routed and dispersed. With a few survivors and new volunteers, 
he hasiened across the Broad River, ranged the districts upon its western banks, 
and, in November, defeated Colonel Wemyss, who attacked his camp at the 
Fish Dam Ford, in Chester district. Twelve days afterward, he defeated Tarle- 
ton in an engagement at Blackstocks, on the Tyger river; but, being severely 
wounded, he proceeded immediately to North Carolina, where he remained until 
his wounds were healed. 

Early in February, 178], Sumter again took the field, and while Greene was 
retreating before Lord Cornwallis, he was aiding Marion, Pickens, and others, in 
humbling the garrisons of the enemy on the borders of the low country. He 
continued in active service during the whole campaign of 1781, and did much 
toward humbling the British posts near Charleston ; but ill-health ecmpelled him 
to leave the army before the close of the war. He was for a long time a mem- 
ber of the House of Representatives of the United States, and also of the Senate 
in the earher years of the Republic. Finally, when he retired from public life, 
he took up his abode near Bradford Springs, on the High Hills of Santee (now 
Statesburg), South Carolina. There he lived until he had almost reached cen- 
tenary honors. He died there, on the 1st of June, 3 832, when in the ninety- 
eighth year of his age. When the writer visited that region, in 1849, the house 
and plantation of General Sumter were owned by a mulatto named Ellison, a 
man greatly esteemed. He had purchased ^the freedom of himself and family in 
ern-ly life, and was then the owner of a large estate in laud, and about sixty 
slaves. 



I 



WILLIAM PINKNEY. 



16 i 





^./^^^ 



WILLIAM PINKNEY. 

ONE of the most profound and brilliant of the orators and statesmen of his a^e, 
was the equally-renowned diplomatist, William Pinkney, of Maryland. He 
was born at Annapolis, on the 17th of March, 1764. Although his father was a 
staunch loyalist, William, as soon as he reached young manhood toward the 
close of the Revolution, warmly espoused the cause of the patriots. He pos- 
sessed great strength of mind, but his early education was sadly neglected. By 
severe study he soon made amends, and took front rank among his more fortun- 
ate companions. He first studied the science of medicine, but, regarding the 
law with more favor, not only as more agreeable to his inclinations but as more 
promising in personal distinctions, he abandoned the former, and devoted his ener- 
gies to the latter. He was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty -two years, 
and soon afterward he commenced the practice of his profession in Harford 
county, Maryland, where, in 1789, he married a sister of (afterward) Commodore 
Rodgers. 

In 1792, Mr. Pinkney was elected to a seat in the executive council of Mary- 
land; and, in 1795, was chosen a delegate to the State legislature. The follow- 
ing year, President Washington appointed him one of the commissioners under 



238 OLIVEE WOLCOTT. 

the provisions of Jay's treaty, and lie pr»ceeded to England. He performed his 
arduous and varied duties with great ability and success. Soon after his return 
to America, in 1805, he removed to Baltimore, and was immediately appointed 
attorney-general of Maryland. The following year he was again sent to England 
to treat concerning the impressment of American seamen into the British service, 
and other matters which finally resulted in war. After remaining in Europe 
several years, he returned in 1811, and became one of the most ardent supporters 
of Mr. Madison's administration. He was chosen a member of the Maryland 
Senate, and toward the close of 1811, President Madison appointed him attor- 
ney-general of the United States. He went to the field in defence of his native 
State, in 1814, and fought the British bravely at Bladensburg. He was soon 
afterward elected to Congress; and, in 1816, he was appointed minister to the 
court of St. Petersburg. There he remained until 1820, when he returned home, 
and was immediately chosen to a seat in the United States Senate. In that 
body, and in the Supreme Court of the United States, he labored intensely until 
the close of 1821, when his health suddenly gave way. He died on the 25th of 
February, 1822, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. 



OLIVER AVOLCOTT. 

HENRY WOLCOTT was one of the earliest and most active settlers in th6> 
Connecticut Valley, whither he went from Dorchester, near Boston, in 
1736, and made his residence at Windsor. There, on the 26th of November, 
1726, his distinguished descendant, Oliver Wolcott, was born. At the age of 
seventeen years he entered Yale College, as a student, and left it in 1747, bear- 
ing the usual college honors. The contest with the French and Indians, known 
as King George's War, was then in progress, and young Wolcott obtained a 
captain's commission, raised a company, and joined the provincial army. Peace 
soon came, but he held his commission, and arose regularly to the rank of major- 
general. At the close of the war he studied medicine, and when about to com- 
mence its practice, he was appointed sheriff of Litchfield county, Connecticut, 
where he resided. He was distinguished for his early advocacy of the cause of 
the colonists in the dispute with Great Britain, and was a member of the council 
of his native State from 1774 until 1786. In the meanwhile he was a member 
of the Continental Congress, chief justice of Litchfield county, and judge of pro- 
bate, of that district. As a member of Congress, he signed the Declaration of 
Independence ; and he was also appointed, by that body, one of the commission- 
ers of Indian affairs for the northern department. As umpire and active par- 
ticipator in the matter of dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania, con- 
cerning the Wyoming Valley, Judge Wolcott performed an important service, 
in procuring a settlement. 

At home Judge Wolcott was very active in recruiting men for the continental 
service,' and he was in command of a body of troops in the army of Gates, at 
Saratoga, when Burgoyne was captured. In 1786, he was elected lieutenant- 

1. When, in July, 1776, the American soldiers pulled down and bi-oke in pieces the leaden equestrian 
statue of George the Third, which stood in the Bowling-green at the foot of Broadway, New York, a 
greater portion of it was sent to Governor Wolcott, at Litchfield, to be converted into bullets. This 
service was performed by a son and two daughters of Governor Wolcott, Mr. and Miss Marvin, and Mrs. 
Beach. According to an account-current of the cartridges made from that statue, found among the 
papers of Governor Wolcott, it appears that it furnished materials for forty-two thousand bulletr. Re- 
ferring to this matter, Ebenezer Hazzard, in a letter to Gates, said, ' ' His [the king's] troops will probably 
have melted majesty fired at them." 



THOMAS COOPER. 239 



governor of Connecticut, and was annually reelected to that office for ten years, 
when he was chosen chief magistrate. He was again chosen governor, in 1797, 
and was an incumbent of the chair of State at the time of his death, which oc^ 
curred on the 1st of December, of that year, when he was in the seventy-second 
year of his age. Inflexible integrity, sterling virtue, and exalted piety, were the 
prominent traits of Governor Wolcott's character. He was also a bright example 
as a patriot and Christian. 



THOMAS COOPKK. 

POLITICAL as well as religious persecutions in Europe have, from time to 
time, driven many valuable men to this comitry for their own preservation 
and for our special benefit. Few of these have held a more prominent place in 
the public esteem than Dr. Thomas Cooper, for many years president of the Col- 
lege of South Carolina. He was a native of England, where he was born in 1759. 
He was graduated at Oxford University at the age of eighteen years. Bearing 
in his hand the honors of that institution, and in his heart the glowing enthusiasm 
of a liberal soul, he entered boldly and fearlessly upon the sea of politics, with a 
democratic idea as his guiding star. When the French Revolution blazed forth, 
young Cooper attached himself to the party in England that hailed the event 
with delight, and he soon became a marked man by friends and foes. When 
the atrocities of the so-called Republican party, in France, chilled the blood of 
even its warm friends in England, and enthusiasm began to cool. Cooper found 
his country an uncomfortable and perhaps a dangerous place to domieil in ; and 
in 1794, ho came to America, with his friend Dr. Priestly, and other reformers. 
He resided awhile in New York city, then in Philadelphia, and became first a 
judge of a court of common pleas in Pennsylvania, and then professor of chem- 
istry in Dickenson College, at Carlisle, in that State. He was a great student; 
yet, unlike many great students, he was a dispenser as well as a recipient of 
knowledge. His attainments were multifarious and extraordinary; and he 
wrote and published works on Law, Medical Jurisprudence, and Political Econ- 
omy. He translated Justinian and Broussais ; and he was a habitual writer 
upon current politics, alvvaj^s in favor of the Republican party. He efficiently 
sustained the administrations of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe. Jefferson 
offered him the Professorship of Chemistry in the University of Virginia, but he 
declined it. lie subsequently filled the same chair in the College of South 
Carohna, where his lectures were of the highest order, not only on account of 
theu- scientific instructions, but for their beauty as specimens of English com- 
position. Ho finally became president, of that institution, yet, with all his wealth 
of knowledge and peculiar powers of impartation, the institution did not flourish 
to that degree which the accomplishments of its head taught its friends to ex- 
pect. The reason may be found in the fact that Dr. Cooper was an avowed un- 
believer in revealed religion, and Christian parents would not intrust their chil- 
dren to his care. He was the more dangerous in this respect, because his man- 
ners were captivating, and his opposition to Christianity was so courteous, that 
no one was repelled by a shock such as the writings of Paine and others give to 
the soul which had hitherto dwelt in an atmosphere of belief. Dr. Cooper was 
an esteemed resident of Columbia, South Carolina, for about twenty years, and 
died there, while in the performance of his duties as president of the college, on 
the 11th of May, 1839, in the eightieth year of Ms age. 



240 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



SAMUEL HOPKINS. 

FEW theologians of our country have exerted a wider special influence than 
Samuel Hopkins, a descendant of Governor Hopkins, of Connecticut, and 
the chief of the Calvinistic sect of Christians known as Hopkinsians. He was 
born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on the 17th of September, 1721, and in the 
excellent society of that town his youth was spent, and the labors of a Hirni 
were his occupation. He was graduated at Yale College, in 1741, and that year 
he heard both Whitefield and Gilbert Tennant preach. Their sermons n;adc a 
deep impression upon his mind, and almost unsettled his reason. He remained 
a recluse in his father's house for several months, and then went to Northampton 
to study divinity under Jonathan Edwards. He was ordained a Christinn min- 
ister at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, on tlio 28th of December, 1743. There 
he remained until 1769, when he was dismissed by an ecclesiastical council. Ho 
went to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1770, where he preached for awhile, but 
new views concerning vital religion, which he had put forth, displeased many 
of his hearers, and, at a meeting, they resolved not to give him a call as a pr.stor. 
He prepared to leave them, and preached a farewell sermon. That discourse so 
interested and impressed the people, that they urged him to remain and become 
their pastor. He complied, and the connection was severed only by his death 
thirty-three years afterward. When the British took possession of Rhode Island, 
in 1776, Mr. Hopkins retired, with his family, to Great Barrington, and preached 
at Newburyport, Canterbury, and Stamford. After the evacuation of Rhode 
Island, by the British, in 1780, he returned to Newport, but his flock were so 
scattered and impoverished, that they could not give him a stated salary. Yet 
he declined invitations to preach elsewhere to more favored congregations; and 
during the remainder of his life he continued a faithful pastor there, and sub- 
sisted upon the weekly contributions of his friends. He was deprived of the 
use of his limbs, by paralysis, in 1799, but so far recovered as to be able to 
preach again. He died on the 20th of December, 1803, at the age of eighty-two 
years. Dr. Hopkins was an inefficient preacher. His pen, and not his tongue, 
was the chief utterer of those sentiments which have made his name famous as 
a Calvinistic theologian, i 



^VILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 

ON the banks of the James River, in Charles City county, Virginia, is a plain 
mansion, around which is spread the beautiful estate of BerJceley. tlic birth- 
place of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of one of tlie Presidents 
of the United States. The former was Benjamin Harrison, whose career we 
have already sketched. The latter was his son, William Henry Harrison, whose 
life we will now consider. He was born on the 9th of February, 1773. At a 
suitable age he was plac(?d in Hampden Sydney College, where he was graduated ; 
and then, under the supervision of his guardian (Robert Morris), in Philadelphia, 
prepared himself for the practice of the medical art. At about that time an 

1. Dr. Hopkins not only embraced Ihe whole Oiilvinislic doctrine of ''total depravity" and "pre- 
destination and election, "but added thereto some extraordinary views concerning lhe origin and nature 
of sin, quite incompatible with reason or common cense. Yet many embraced his doctrines : and hlo two 
volumes of sermons have been extensively read and admired by those who have a taste for such meta- 
physical disquisitions. 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. 



?A 




/c^////^^^^6 



O/i.^ 



army was gathering to chastise the hostile Indians in the North-west. Young 
Harrison's mihtary genius was stirred within him, and having obtained an en- 
sign's commission from President Washington, he joined the army at the age of 
nineteen years. He was promoted to a heutenancy, in 1792; and, in 1794, he 
fohowed Wayne to conflicts with the North-western tribes, where he greatly 
distingaislied himself. He was appointed secretary of the North-western Ter- 
ritory, in 1797, and resigned his military commission. Two years afterward, 
whai only twenty-six years of age, he was elected the first delegate to Congress 
from the Territory.' On the erection of Indiana into a separate territorial 
government, in 1801, Harrison was appointed its chief magistrate, and he was 
continued in that office, by consecutive reappointments, until 1813,2 when the 
war with Great Britain called him to a more important sphere of action. He 
had already exhibited his military skill in the battle with the Indians at Tippe- 
canoe, in the Autumn of 1811. He was commissioned a major-general in the 
Kentucky militia, by brevet, early in 1812. After the surrender of General 
Hull, at Detroit, he was appointed major-general in the army of the United 
States, and intrusted with the command of the North-western division. He was 
one of the best officers in that war; but, after achieving the battle of the Thames, 

1. It included (he present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. General St. Clair was then 
governor of the Territory. 

2. He Ivid also held the olfice of commi'<sioner ::f Indian affairs, in that Territory, and had concluded 
no less than thirleeu important treaties with the (f Jerent tribes. 



242 ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 

and other victories in the lake country, iis military services were concluded 
He resigned his commission, in 1814, in consequence of a misunderstanding witn 
the Secretary of War, and retired to his farm at North Bend, Ohio. He serve< t 
as commissioner in negotiating Indian treaties ; and the voice of a gratefi.l 
people afterward called him to represent them in the legislature of Ohio, and of 
the nation. He was elected to the Senate of the United States, in 1824. In 
1828. he was appointed minister to Colombia, one of the South American Rc- 
pubHcs. He was recalled, by President Jackson, on account of some differences 
of opinion respecting diplomatic events in that region, when he returned home, 
and again sought the repose of private life. There he remained about ten years, 
when he was called forth to receive from the American people the highest honor 
in their gift — the chief magistracy of the Republic. He was elected President 
of the United States by an immense majority, and was inaugurated en the 4th 
of March, 1841. For more than twenty days he bore the unceasing clamors for 
ofSce, with winch the ears of a new president are always assailed ; and then his 
slender constitution, pressed by the weight of almost threescore and ten years, 
suddenly gave way. The excitements of his new station increased a slight disease 
caused by a cold, and on the 4th of April — just one month after the inauguration 
pageant at the presidential mansion, — the honored occupant was a corpse. He 
was succeeded in office by the vice-president, John Tyler. 



ARTHUR ST. CI.AIR. 

THERE were brave soldiers, full of confidence in themselves and their com 
panions-in-arms, during the War for Independence, who lacked skill a 
leaders, and failed in winning that fame to which their courage entitled them 
Arthur St, Clair was of that number. Ho was an officer of acknowledged braver 
and prudence, yet he was far from being an expert military leader. He wa 
born at Edinburgh, in Scotland, in 1134, and was a lieutenant in the army unde 
Wolfe, in the campaign against Canada, in 1759. He remained in America 
after the peace, and was placed in command of Fort Ligonier, in Wcstmorelan( 
county, Pennsylvania. He also received a grant of a thousand acres of land ii 
that then wilderness, and resided there until the beginning of the Revolutioi 
He was appointed to the command of a battalion of Pennsylvania militia, i 
January, 1776, and received from Congress the commission of colonel. He raise 
a regiment, proceeded to the northern department to operate against Canad; 
and, in August, was promoted to brigadier-general. He behaved with gre;i 
bravery and skill in the battles at Trenton and Princeton ; and, in rebruar\ 
1777, he was commissioned a major-general. He was placed in command <^ 
Ticonderoga the following Summer, The post was weak in many ways, an 
when, in July, Burgoyne, with a powerful army, approached and took an ai 
vantageous position, St. Clair abandoned it, and retreated toward the Hudsoi 
where Schuyler was preparing to meet the invaders. That retreat proved ;. 
disastrous one in the loss of men and munitions. A court of inquiry honorably 
acquitted him; and, in 1780, he was ordered to Rhode Island, Circumstances 
prevented his taking command there; and, in 1781, when the allied American 
and French armies proceeded to attack Cornwall is, at Yorktown, in Virginia, he 
remained in Philadelphia, with a considerable force, to protect Congress. He 
obtained permission to join the main army, and arrived at Yorktown during the 
siege. After the capture of the British army there, he proceeded to join General i 



FRANCOIS XAVIER MARTIN. 243 

Greene, in the South, and on his way he drove the British from Wilmington, 
North Carolina. 

General St. Clair was a member of the executive council of Pennsylvania, in 
1783, and was elected to Congress three years afterward. He was president of 
that body, early in 1787. Upon the erection of the North-western Territory into 
a government, in 1788, he was appointed its governor, and held that office until 
1802, when Ohio was admitted into the Union as a sovereign State. 

St. Clair commanded an army against the Miami Indians, in 17'J1 ; and, in the 
Autumn of tliat year, was defeated with the loss of almost seven hundred men. 
Ho was then suffering from severe illness, j^et bore liimself bravely. Public 
censure was loud and ungenerous, but a committee of the House of Represent- 
atives acquitted him of all blame. When he retired from public life, in 1802, ho 
was an old man, and almost ruined in fortune. He resided in dreary loneliness 
near Laurel Hill, Westmoreland county, and for a long time vainly petitioned 
Congress to allow certain claims. He finally obtained a pension of sixty dollars 
a month, and his last days were made comfortable. He died on the 31st of 
August, 1818, at the age of eighty-four years. His remains rest in the grave- 
yard of the Presbyterian Church, at Greensburg, and over it the Masonic frater- 
nity placed a handsome monument, in 1832. 



FRANCOIS XAVIER MARTIN. 

PERHAPS one of the most learned jurists and erudite scholars that ever 
adorned the profession of the law, in this country, was Prangois Xavier 
Martin, better known to the general reader as the accomplished Historian of 
• North Carolina.' He was born at Marseilles, in France, on the l7th of March, 
17G2. At the age of twenty years he came to America. The war of the Revo- 
lution was then just drawing to a close, and ho took up his residence at New- 
born, in North Carolina, and prepared himself for the profession of the law. On 
his first appearance at the bar, he gave evidence of that acuteness which marked 
his whole career, in whatever station in life he was called to act. His practice 
became extensive and lucrative, and he soon took a high social position in his 
adopted State. lu 1806, he was called to represent Newborn district in the 
House of Commons of North Carolina. Soon after the close of his duties therein, 
President Madison (in 1809) appointed him United States Judge of the Missis- 
sippi Territory, and ho made his residence at Natchez. On the 1st of Februarj-, 
1815, he was elevated by Governor Claiborne to the bench of the Supreme Court 
of Louisiana, as one of the associate judges. Ho held that office for twenty-two 
years, when, in January, 1837, he became chief justice of the State, on the death 
of Judge Mathews. Chief Justice Martin remained at the head of the Supreme 
Court of Louisiana until the adoption of the present constitution of that State, 
in the Autumn of 1815, when he retired to private life. He was then in the 
eighty-fourth year of his age. Judge Martin lived but a little more than a year 
after his retirement. He died on the 10th of December, 1846. No man ever 
left an official station with fewer stains of sins of omission or commission upon his 
garment, than Judge Martin, for through his long life not a syllable in disparage- 
ment of his honesty and integrity was ever uttered. His memory is cherished 
with the deepest affection by the members of his profession, and by the com- 
munity in which he lived. 

1. His History of North Carolinn, incluflin^ Uie story of its discovery, settlement, and progress of 
colonization, until the beginning of the Revolution, was commenced in 1791, but was not published 
until 1829, when it was issued from a New Orleans press, in two octavo volumes. 



244 ANDREW JACKSON. 



ANDREW JACKSON; 

" A SK nothing but what is right — submit to nothing wrong," was Andrew 
xjL Jackson's great political maxim; and it was an abiding principle in his 
character from his earliest youth until the close of his life. That noble principle 
was the key to his great success in whatever he undertook, and is worthy of 
adoption by every young man when he sets out upon the perilous voyage of 
active life. Jackson's parents were from the north of Ireland, and were among 
the early Scotch-Irish settlers in the upper part of South Carolina, in the vicinity 
of Waxhaw Creek. Jackson's father lived north of the dividing line betv.'ecu 
North and South Carohna, in Mecklenburg count}-, and there Andrew was born 
on the 15th of March, 17G7. Ilis father died five days afterward, and a month 
later, his mother took up her abode in South Carorma, near the meeting-liouso 
of the Waxhaw settlement. lie received a fair education, for his mother designed 
him for the Christian ministry. But his studies were interrupted by the tumults 
of the on-coming Revolution, and soon after the fah of Charleston, the Waxhav^, 
settlement became a terrible scene of blood, in the massacre of Buford's regiment 
by the fiery Tarleton.' Every clement of the Hon in young Jackson's nature 
was aroused by this event, and, boy as he was, net yet fourteen years of age, ho 
joined the patriot army and went to the field. One of his brothers was killed 
at Stono, and himself and another brother were made captives, in 1781. The 
v.'idow was soon bereaved of all her family, but Andrev/ ; and after making a 
journey of mercy to Charleston, to relieve sick prisoners, she fell by the way- 
side, and 'the place of her sepulchre is not known unto this day.' Left alono 
at a critical period of life, with some property at his disposal, young Jackson 
commenced a career that promised certain destruction. He suddenly reformed, 
studied law, and was licensed to practice, in 1786. He was soon afterward ap-. 
pointed solicitor of the Western District of Tennessee, and journeying over tho 
mountains, he commenced, in that then wilderness, that remarkable career as 
attorney, judge, legislator, and military commander, wliich on contemplation 
assumes tlic features of tho wildest romance, viewed from any point of apprecia- 
tion. Ilis lonely journeyings, his collisions v/itli the Indians, his difficulties^ 
with gamblers and fraudulent creditors and land speculators, and his Avonderful 
personal triumphs in hours of greatest danger, make the record of his life one of 
rare interest and instruction. 

Ill 1790, Jackson made his residence at Nashville, and there he married an 
accomplished Avoman, Avho had been divorced from her husband. In 1795, ho 
assisted in forming a State Constitution for Tennessee, and was elected the first 
representative, in Congress, cf the new State. In the Autumn of 1797, he took 
a seat in the United States Senate, to which ho had been chosen, and was a 
conspicuous supporter of the democratic party. He did not remain long at 
Washington. Soon after leaving the Senate, he was appointed judge of the 
Supreme Court of his State. lie resigned that office, in 1804, and retired to his 
beautiful estate near Nashville. There ho was visited by Aaron Burr, in 1805, 
and entered warmly into his schemes for invading Mexico. When Burr's inten-' 
tions were suspected, Jackson refused farther intercourse with him until he should 
prove the purity of his intentions. For many years Jackson was chief military , 
commander in his section; and when war against Gl-reat Britain was proclaimed, 

1. Tarleton gave no quarter, and about one liundrp-i and fifty men, ready to surrender to superior • 
num'^ers, were killed or cruelly maimed. Thewouidsd and the dying were taken into the Waxhaw 
meeting-house, and there the mother of Jackson, and other women, altended them. Under ihe roof of ' 
that sacred edifice, young Jackson first saw the demon of war in its most horrid form, and all that ^ 
misery and British power and oppression, were ever afterward associated in his mind. 



ANDREW JACKSON. 



245 




in 1812, lie longed for employment in tlie field. He was called to duty in 1813. 
Early the following year he was made a major-general, and from that time until 
his great victory at New Orleans, on the 8th of January, 1815, his name was 
identified with every military movement in the South, whether against the hos- 
tile Indians, Britons, or Spaniards. In 1818, he engaged successfully in a cam- 
paign against the Seminoles and other Southern Indians, and, at the same time, 
he taught the Spanish authorities in Florida some useful lessons, and hastened 
the cession of that territory to the United States. 

In 1821, President Monroe appointed General Jackson governor of Florida; 
and, in 1823, he offered him the station of resident minister in Mexico. He 
declined the honor, but accepted a seat in the United States Senate, to which 
the legislature of Tennessee had elected him. He was one of the four candi- 
dates for President of the United States, in 1824, but was unsuccessful. He was 
elevated to that exalted station, in 1828, by a large majority, and was reelected, 
in 1832. His administration of eight years was marked bv great energy; and 
never were the affairs of the Ilepu]:)lic, in its domestic and foreign relations, mor& 
prosperous than at the close of his term of office. In the Spring of 1837, hk. 
retired from public life forever, and sought repose after a long and laborious career, 
devoted to the service of his country. He lived quietly at his residence near 
Nashville, called The Hermitage, until on a calm Sunday, the 8th of June, 1845, 
his spirit went home. He was then a little more than seventy-eight years of 



246 NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. 

age. The memory of that great and good man is levered by his countrymen, 
next to that of "Washington, and to him hfffe been awarded tlie first equestrian 
statue in bronze ever erected in this country. It is colossal, and occupies a 
conspicuous place in President's Square, Washington, city, where it was reared 
in 1852. 



NATHANIEL BOWDITCH. 

THE practical man who, in any degree, lightens the burden of human labor, is 
eminently a public benefactor. Such- was NaQianiel Bowditch, who, by 
navigators, has been aptly termed The Great Pilot He was the son of a poor 
ship-master, of Salem, where Nathaniel was born on the 26th of March, 1773. 
His education was acquired at a district school; and at the age of thirteen years 
he was apprenticed to a ship-chandler. He performed his duties fiithfully until 
manhood, and during his whole apprenticeship he employed every leisure mo- 
ment in reading and study. Mathematics was his fa^^orite study, and it became 
the medium of his greatest public services. 

At the age of twenty-two years young Bowditch went on a voyage to the 
East Indies, as captain's clerk, and his naturally strong mind was engaged chiefly 
on the subject of navigation, while at sea. The result of his reflections, observa- 
tions, and calculations, was the publication, in 1802, of the well-known nautical 
work, entitled the New American Practical Navigator.^ For nine, years he was 
himself a practical navigator, and during that time he rose gradually from captain's 
clerk to master. He left the sea, in 1804, and became president of a Marine 
Insurance Company, at Salem. Tliat office he held for almost twenty years. 
Two years before," while his ship lay wind-bound in Boston Harbor, Captain 
Bowditch went to Cambridge to listen to the Cx>.'iimencement exercises at Har- 
vard College, and while standing in the crowded aisle, he heard his own name 
announced, by the president, as the recipient of the degree of Master of Arts. 
It was to him the proudest day of his life. He was then about twenty-nine 
years of ago. 

In 1806, Mr. Bowditch published an admirable chart of the harbors of Salem, 
Beverly, Marblehead, and Manchester. In 1816, he received the degree of 
Doctor of Laws, from Harvard College ; and was elected a member of the Royal 
Society of London, in 1818. He contributed many valuable papers to scientific 
publications, but the groat work of his life was the translation and annotation 
of Laplace's Mecanique Celeste. He published it at his own expense entirely, 
remarking that he would rather spend a thousand dollars a year, in that way, 
than to ride in his carriage. It was a task of great labor and expense, and con- 
sists of five large volumes. The first was published in 1829, the second in 1832, 
and the third in 1834. He read the last proof sheets of the fourth volume only 
a few days before his death. The revision of the fifth was left to other hands. 
Dr. Bowditch died on the 16th of March, 1838; and his last words were "Lord, 
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word." He was 
a man of great literary and scientific attainments, and was proficient in the 

1. The origin of that work shows how comparatively insignificant events will result in great henefits. 
On the flay previous to his sailing on his last voyage, he was called npon by Edumnd N. Blunt, then a 
noted publisher of charts and nautical books, at Newburyport, and requested to continue the corrections 
wliich he had previously commenced on Moore's book on navigation, then in common use. In perform- 
ance of his promise to do so, he detected so many and important errors, that he resolved to prepaie an 
entire new work. That work was his Practical Navigator. 



I 



MAEINUS WILLETT. 247 



Latin, Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German languages. Ho 
was not ambitious for public life, yet he twice occupied a seat in the executive 
council of Governor Strong, of Massachusetts. His memory is sweet for his life 
was pure. 



MAR IN US WIT. LETT. 

X[0 member of the associated Sons of Liberty, in New York, exceeded Marinus 
1\ Willett in devotion to republican principles, and in boldness of action when 
called to their support He was born at Jamaica, Long Island, on the 10th of 
August, 1740. He was one of thirteen children, and lived to survive them all. 
The French and Indian war was burning fiercely in northern New York when 
he approached young manhood. His military passion was fired, and, before ho 
was eighteen years of age, ho entered the provincial army with a second lieu- 
tenant's commission, under the command of Colonel Oliver Delancy.' He shared 
in the misery of Abercrombie's defeat at Ticonderoga, in 1758; and immediately 
afterward he accompanied Colonel Bradstreet in his successful expedition against 
Fort Frontenac (now Kingston, Upper Canada), at the foot of Lake Ontario. 
Fatigue and exposure impaired his health, and ho left ihe service soon aftervt^ard. 
"When, a few years later, the Stamp Act spread a deep and ominous murmur 
over the land, Mr. Willett had chosen his banner, and from that time until the 
organization of an army of patriots to fight for hberty, he was one of the boldest 
supporters of his country's rights, by word and deed. 

When British troops in New York were ordered to Boston, after the skirmish 
at Lexington, they atte opted to carry off a large quantity of spare arms, in ad- 
dition to their own. Willett resolved to prevent it, and, though opposed by the 
mayor and other Whigs, he led a body of citizens, captured the baggage-wagons 
containing them, and took them back to the city. Those arms were afterward 
used by the first regiment raised by the State of New York. Willett was appointed 
second captain of a company in Colonel M'Dougal's regiment, and accompanied 
Montgomery in his northern expedition. After the capture of St. John's, on the 
Sorel, he escorted prisoners taken at Chambly, to Ticonderoga, and then was 
placed in command of St. John's. He held that post until January, 177G. In 
November of that year he was appointed lieutenant-colonel; and, at the opening 
of the campaign of 1777, he was placed in command of Fort Constitution, on the 
Hudson, opposite West Point. In May he was ordered to Fort Stanwix, or 
Schuyler (now Rome), where he performed signal services. He was left in com- 
mand of the fort, and remained there until the Summer of 1778, when he joined 
the army under Washington, and was at the battle of Monmouth. He accom- 
panied Sullivan in his campaign against the Indians in 1779, and was actively 
engaged in the Mohawk Yalley, in 1780, 1781, and 1782. At the close of the 
war he returned to civil pursuits. Washington highly esteemed him ; and, in 
1792, he vras sent by the President to treat with the Creek Indians at the South. 
The same year he was appointed a brigadier-general m the army intended to 
act against the North-western Indians. He declined the appointment, for he 
was opposed to the expedition. He was for some time sheriff of New York, and 
was elected mayor of the city, in 1807. He was chosen elector of president and 

1. It may he interesting to the young to know the style of a military dress at that time. Willett thus 
describes his own uniform : A green coat trimmed with silver twist, white under-clothes, and black 
gaiters ; also a cocked hat, with a large black cockade of silk ribbon, together with a silver button and 
loop. 



248 JOHN STAPvK. 



vice-president, in 1824, and was made president of the Electoral College. 
Colonel Willett died in the city of New Tork, on the 23d of August, 1830, in 
the ninety-tirst year of his age. 



JOHN STARK. 

" "DOYS! there 's the enemy. They must he beat, or Molly Stark must sleep a 
13 widow this night ! Forward, boys! March!" Such were the vigorous 
words of a hero of two wars, the gallant General Stark, as he led his corps of 
Green Mountain Boys to attack the Hessians and Tories, near Bennington. He 
was an unpohshed soldier, who had learned the art of desultory warfare in ser- 
vice against the French and Indians in northern New York. He was the son 
of a Scotchman, and was born at Londonderry (now the city of Manchester), 
Ne-v Hampshire, on the 28th of August, 1728. His early childhood was spent 
in the midst of the wild scenery of his birth-place, and in youth he was remark- 
able for expertncss in trapping the beaver and otter, and in hunting the bear 
and deer. Just before the breaking out of the French and Indian war, he pen- 
etrated the forests far northward, and was captured by some St. Francis Indians. 
He suffered dreadfully for a long time, and then Avas ransomed at a great price. 
This circumstance gave him good cause for leading a compan}' of Eangers against 
these very Indians and their sometimes equally savage i'rench allies, four years 
afterward. He became a captain, under Major Eogcrs, in 1756, and in that school 
he was taught those lessons winch he practiced so usefully twenty years later. 
When intelligence reached the valleys of the North, that blood had been shed 
at Lexington, Stark led the train-bands of his district to Cambridge, and was 
commissioned a colonel, with eight hundred men under liis banner. With these 
he fought bravely in the battle of Bunker's Hill. He went to New York after 
the British evacuated Boston, in the Spring of 1776. Then, at the head of a 
brigade in the northern department, under Gates, he performed essential service 
in the vicinity of Lake Champlain ; and near the close of the year, he commanded 
the right wing of Sullivan's column in the battle at Trenton. He shared in the 
honors at Princeton; but, being overlooked by Congress when promotions were 
made, he resigned his commission and retired from the army. But when the 
invader approached from the North, his own State called him to the field, in 
command of its brave sons; and on the Walloomscoik, a few miles from Ben- 
nington, he won that decisive battle which gave him world-wide renown. Then 
it was that he made the rough but effective speech above quoted, that indicated 
the alternative of death or victory. Congress was no longer tardy in acknowl- 
edging his services, for he had given that crippling blow to Burgoyne, which 
insured to Gates' army a comparatively easy victory. The national legislature 
gave him grateful thanks, and a brigadier's commission in the Continental army. 
He joined Gates at Saratoga, and shared in the honors of that great victory. In 
1779, he was on duty on Ehode Island, and the following year he fought the 
British and Hessians at Springfield, in New Jersej'. In the Autumn of 1780, 
he was one of the board of officers that tried and condemned the unfortunate 
Major Andre; and until the last scenes of the war, he was in active service. 
When he sheathed his sword, he left the arena of public life forever, though he 
lived almost forty years afterward. General Stark died on the 8th of May, 1822, 
at the age of almost ninety-four years. Near his birth-place, on the east side 
of the Merrimac, is a granite shaft, bearing the simple inscription, Majoe-Gi n- 
ERAL Stark. His eulogium is daily uttered by our free institutions — his epitaph 
is in the memory of his deeds. 



PHILLIS WHEATLEY. 



24D 




PHILLIS WHEATLEY. 

*' 'Twas mercy brought me from my pagan land, 
Taught my benighted soul to understand 
That there 's a God — that there 's a Siiviour too ; 
Once I redemption neither sought r.or knew." 

SO felt the heart, and so recorded the pen of a child of Africa, who, by her 
talent and virtue, honored her race and challenged the kindlj regard of 
many of the good and great of our country. The lady of a respectable citizen 
of Boston, named Wheatley, went to the slave-market, in that city, in 1761, to 
purchase a child-negress, that she might rear her to be a faithful nurse in tho 
old age of her mistress. She saw many plump children, but one of delicate 
frame, modest demeanor, and clad in nothing but a piece of dirty carpet wrapped 
about her, attracted her attention, and Mrs. "Wheatley took her home in her 
chaise, and gave her tho name of Phillis. The child seemed to be about seven 
years of age, and exhibited remarkable intelligence, and apt imitative powers. 
Mrs. Wh3atley's daughter taught the child to read and write, and her progress 
was wondorfal. She appeared to have very little recollection of her birth-place, 
but remembered seeing her mother pour out water before the sun at its rising. 
With the development of her intellectual faculties her moral nature kept pace ; 
and she was greatly beloved by all who knew her for her amiability and perfect 
docility. She soon attracted the attention of men of learning; and as Phillis 

11* 



250 PHILLIS WHEATLEY. 

read books with great avidity, tliey supplied her. Piety was a ruhng sentiment 
in her character, and tears born of gratitude to^God and her kind mistress, often 
moistened her eyes. As slie grew to womanliood her tliouglits found expression 
through her pen, sometimes in prose but more frequently in verse ; and she was 
often an invited guest in the families of tlie rich and learned, in Boston. Her 
mistress treated her as a child, and was extremely proud of her.' 

At the age of about sixteen years (1770) Phillis became a member of the 
" Old South Church," then under the charge of Dr. Sewall; and it was at about 
this time that she wrote the poem from which the above is an extract Earlier 
than this she had written poems, remarkable for both vigor of thought and pathos 
in expression. Her memory, in some particulars, appears to have been extremely 
defective. If she composed a poem, in the night, and did not write it down, it 
would be gone from her, forever, in the morning. Her kind mistress gave her 
a light and writing materials at her bed-side, that she might lose nothing, and iu 
cold weather a fire was always made in her room, at night. In the Summer cf 
1773, her health gave way, and a sea-voyage was recommended. She accom- 
panied a son of Mr. Wheatley, to England, and there she was cordially received 
by Lady Huntingdon, Lord Dartmouth, and other people of distinction. While 
there, her poems, which had been collected and dedicated to the Countess of 
Huntingdon, were published, and attracted great attention. The book was em- 
bellished with a portrait of her, from which our picture was copied. She was 
persuaded to remain in London until the return of the court, so as to bo jiresented 
to the king, but, hearing of the declining health of her mistress, she hastened 
home. That kind friend was soon laid in the grave, and Phillis grieved as deeply 
as any of her children. Mr. Wheatley died soon afterward, and then his excel- 
lent daughter was laid by the side of her parents. Phillis was left destitute, and 
the sun of her earthly happiness went down. A highly-intelligent colored man, 
of Boston, named Peters, offered himself in marriage to the poor orphan, and 
was accepted. He proved utterly unworthy of the excellent creature he had 
wedded, and her lot became a bitter one, indeed. She and her husband went 
to the interior of the State, to live, for awhile, and then returned to Boston. 
Misfortune seems to have expelled her muse, for we have no production of her 
pen bearing a later date than those in her volume published in 1773, except a 
poetical epistle to General Washington, in 1775," and a few scraps written at about 
that time. A few years of misery shattered the golden bowl of her life, and, in 
a filthy apartment, in an obscure part of Boston, that gifted wife and mother, 
whose youth had been passed in ease and even luxury, was allowed to perish, 
alone ! Her spirit took wing on the 5th of December, 1 794, when she was about 
forty-one years of age. 

1. On one occasion, Phillis was from homo on a visit, and, as the weather was inclement, her mistress 
sent one of her slaves, with a chaise, afier her. Prince took his seat beside Phillis. As they drew up 
to the house, and their mistress saw ihem, the good woman indignantly exclaimed, " Do but look at 
the saucy varlet — if he has not the impudence to sit upon the same seat with Phillis !" And the 
severely reprimanded Prince for forgetting the dignity of Phillis. 

2. Phillis' letter was dated the 2t)lh of October, 1775. Washington answered it on the 28th of February, 
1776, as follows. His letter was wiitten at his head-quarters, at Cambiidge : 

" Miss Phillis, — Your favor of tha 26th of October did not reach my hands till the middle of Decem- 
ber. Time enough, you will say, to have given an answer ere this. Granted. But a variety of import- 
ant occurrences, continually interiiosing to distract the mind and withdraw the attention, I hope will 



apologize for the delay, and plead my excuse for the seeming, but not real neglect. I thank you most 
sincerely for your polite notice of me in the elegant lines yon incloeed ; and however undeserving I may 
' " ' "-- iinmand panegyric, the style and manner exhibit a striking proof of your poetical 
• of which, and as a. tribute justly due to you, I would have published the poem, had I 
nsive that, while I only meant to give the world this new instance of your genius, I 



be of such encomium 

talents ; in honor i 

not been appiehensi\ ... 

might have incurred the imputation of vanity. This, and nothing else, determined me not to give it 

place in the public pi'ints. If you should ever come to Cambridge, or near head-quarters, I shall be 

happy to see a person so favored by the Muses, and to whom nature has been so liberal and beneficent 

in her dispensations. I am, with great respect, your obedient, humble servant, 

" Geo. Washington." 



CONE AD WEISER. — ISAAC SEAES. 251 



CONRAD \VEISEK. 

ONE of the most noted agents of communication between the white men and 
the Indians, was Conrad Weiser, a native of Germany, who came to Amer- 
ica in early hfe, and settled, with his flither, in the present Schoharie county, 
New York, in 1713. They left England, in 1712, and were seventeen months 
on their voyage I Young' Weiser became a great favorite with the Iroquois 
Indians in the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys, with whom he spent much of 
his life. Late in 1714, the elder Weiser, and about thirty other families, who 
had settled in Schoharie, becoming dissatisfied by attempts to tax them, set 
out for Tulpehocken, in Pennsylvania, by way of the Susquehanna river, and 
sottled there. But young Weiser was enamored of the free life of the savage. 
He was naturalized by tliem, and became thoroughly versed in the languages 
of the whole Six Nations, as the Iroquois confederacy in New York were called. 
He became confidential interpreter and special messenger for the province of 
Pennsylvania among the Indians, and assisted in many important treaties. The 
governor of Virginia commissioned him to visit the grand council at Onondaga, 
in 1737, and, with only a Dutchman and three Indians, he traversed the track- 
less forest for five hundred miles, for that purpose. He went on a similar mission 
from Philadelphia to Shamokin (Sunbury), in 1744. At Reading he established 
an Indian agency and trading-house. When the French on the frontier made 
hostile demonstrations, in 1755, he was commissioned a colonel of a volunteer 
regiment from Berks county ; and, in 1758, he attended the great gathering of the 
Indian chiefs in council with white commissioners, at P'aston. Such was the aflec- 
tion of the Indians for Weiser, that for many years after his death they were in 
the habit of visiting his grave and strewing flowers thereon. Mr. Weiser's 
daughter married Henry Melchoir Muhlenburg, D.D., the founder of the Lutheran 
Church, in America. 



ISAAC SEARS. 

FEW men have occupied so large a space in the public attention, of whom so 
little is known, as Isaac Sears, one of the great leaders of the Sons of Liberty ^ 
in New York, previous to the occupation of that city by the British, in 1776. 
So generally was he regarded as the bold leader in popular outbreaks, that he 
acquired the name of King Sears, by which title he is better known than by his 
commercial one of captain. Of him, a Loyalist writer in Rivington's Gazette 
wrote, exultingly, when the New York Assembly yielded to ministerial require- 
ments : 

" And so, ray good masters, I find it no joke, 
For York has stepp'd forward and thrown off the yoke 
Of Congress, committees, and even Kin<j Sears, 
Who shows you good nature by showing his ears." 

Isaac Sears was lineally descended from one of the earlier settlers in Massa- 
chusetts, who came from Colchester, England, in 1630. Ho was born at Nor- 
vv^alk, Connecticut, in 1729. Of his youth and early manhood we know little, 
except that he was a mariner. He first appeared in public life as a prominent 
member of the association called Sons of Liberty, in 1765, when he was a suc- 
cessful merchant in the city of New York, and a sea-captain of note. He was 
the chairman of the first Committee of Correspondence appointed by the citizens 
of New York, in 1765, and had for his coheagues John Lamb, Gershom Mott, 
William Wiley, and Thomas Robinson. At a later period, he was wounded tn 



252 EDWAED TELFAIR. 

an affray with some soldiers ; and in every enterprise against the schemes of 
government officials he was an acknovvledgecf leader. Early in the Suu;imer of 
1775, he assisted Lamb, Willett, M'Dougal, and others, in seizing some British 
stores at Turtle Bay (46th Street, and East River, New York) ; and in August 
following, he led a party of citizens to assist Captain Lamb in removing British 
cannons from the battery of Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, while the 
Asia vessel of war was hurling round shot at them and the town.' In the 
Autumn of that year he led a party of mounted militia-men from Connecticut, 
vf ho destroyed Rivington's printing-press, and carried off his type, at midday.- 

Althougli Captain Sears continued to be an active Whig during ^he, remainder 
of the Revolution, we do not find his name in connection with nny important 
event. "When peace came, his business and fortune were gone; and, in 1785, 
he made a voyage to China, as a supercargo, being a partner with others in a 
commercial venture. Captain Sears was very ill with fever, on h.«.!x arrival at 
Canton, and died there, on the 28th of October, 1785, at the age of almost fifty- 
seven years. lie was buried upon French Island, and his fellow-voya^eis placed 
a slab, with a suitable inscription upon it, over his grave. 



E D W A R D T E I. F A I K . 

MANY of the leading men in Georgia, at the time of the breaking out of the 
Revolution, were of Scotch descent, and, unlike the settlers from the same 
stock, in Eastern North Carolina, they were generally adherents to the patriot 
cause. Edward Telfair was born in Scotland, in 1735, and received an Enghsh 
education at the grammar school of Kirkcudbright, on the domain of the Earl 
of Selkirk.3 jj^ came to America when twenty -three years of age, and resided 
some time in Virginia, as agent of a commercial house. From thence he v/ent 
to Halifax, on the Roanoke; and, in 1766, made his residence in Savannah. He 
was one of the earliest and most efficient promoters of the rebellion there, and 
was »ne of the leading members of the committee of safety, in 1774. With a 
few others he broke open the provincial magazine and secured the powder for 
the use of the patriots; and he also assisted in the seizure of the royal governor, 
Sir James Wriglit* In 1778 he was elected to a seat in the Continental Con- 
gress ; and on the 24th of July of that year he signed the ratification of the 
Articles of Confederation. He continued a member of that body until 1783, when 
he was appointed a commissioner to conclude a treaty with the Clierokee chiefs, 
by which the boundary line between their nation and Georgia was determined. 
He was governor of Georgia, first in 1786, and then from"l790 to 1793. He 
had the honor of entertaining President Washington, when he visited Georgia, 
in 1791, at his f;imily seat, near Augusta. Governor Telfair died at Savannah, 
on the 19th of September, 1807, in the seventy-second year of his age. He was 
buried with military honors. 

1. Ona of the buildinjrs injured by that cannonade was the tavern of Samuel Fraunce, commonly 
known bv the name of 5?«c7i; Saw-, on account of his dark complexion. It was the same building in 
whi?li Washington had his final parting with his officers, at the close of the war, and for many years 
has-been known as the Broad Street Hotel. It is on the corner of Pearl and Broad Streets. In allusion 
to the event, Philip Freneau wrote, in his Petition of Hugh Gaine : 

" At first we supposed it was only a sham, 
'Till he drove a round ball through the roof of Black Sam." 

Two of the cannons removed at that time by Alexander Hamilton and some of his college associates, 
might be seen at ihe entrance-gate to the groiinds of Columbia College until 1855. 

2. See sketch of Rivington, and also of Bishop Seabury. 

3. See skalch of John Paul Jones. 4. See sketch of Joseph Habersham. 



AARON BUER. 



253 




AARON BIJKR. 

IN this country, where character alone is the accepted standard of respectabihty, 
and where the shield of class does not avert the odium of public opinion 
from the openly immoral man, lot his birth and attainments be ever so exalted, 
there is necessarily a public virtue which no aspirant for honor dare neglect. In 
this sentiment is grounded our dearest hopes for the future of our Republic; and 
however melancholy in itself the spectacle of such a character as that of Aaron 
Burr may appear to the eye of the Christian and Patriot, the detestation in which 
it is held is a confirmation of fjiith in that public virtue. Burr was undoubted!}- 
a patriot, and possessed many noble traits of character, but over all was spread 
the foul slime of libertinism ; and he who might have shined among the bright 
stars of our country's glory, is, in a degree, a "lost pleiad," 

" Damned lo cverlaslirg fame." 

Aaron Burr was the son of the pious President Burr, of the College at Prince- 
ton, and the daughter of the eminent Jonathan Edwards. He was born at 
Newark, New Jersey, on the 5th of February, 1756, and before he was three 
years of age he lost both his parents. He was a wayward boy, yet full of in- 
tellectual promise. At twelve years of age he entered Princeton College, and 
left it in 1772, a ripe scholar for one of his years, and the recipient of academic 



254 JAMES THACHEE. 



honors. He resolved to make the law his profession, but before he could engage 
in its practice, the storm of the Revolution burst upon the country, and he joined 
the Continental army, at Cambri-dge. Full of adventurous spirit, he volunteered 
to accompany Arnold through the wilderness, to Quebec. There he was made- 
one of Montgomery's aids, and was with that ofBcer when he fell. Soon after 
that he entered the military family of General Washington, from which he wcs 
expelled in consequence of some immoral conduct which disgusted the com- 
mander-in-chief Burr was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel, in 17T7, and con- 
tinued in active service untQ 17 V9, when failing health compelled him to resign 
liis office. He had already acquired an unenviable character for expertness iu 
intrigue ; and his hostility to Washington was always bitter and uncompromising. 

Burr commenced the practice of law, at Albany, in 1782, and soon afterward 
removed to the city of New York, where he became distinguished in his pro- 
fession. He was appointed attorney-general of the State, in 1789; and from 
1791 to 1707, he was a member of the United States Senate, and an influcntlrJ 
repubhcan leader, in that bod}'. His winning manners gave him wonderful influ- 
ence. The power of his fascinations over tlio other sex was almost unbounded 
and he used it for the basest purposes. As a politician he was artful and intrig- 
uing ; and he managed so adroitly for himself^ that he received for the office of 
President of the United States, in 1800, the same number of votes as Air. Jeffer- 
son, the head and founder of the Republican party. Congress decided in favor 
of Jefferson, after thirty-six ballotings, and Burr was declared Vice-President, 
according to usage in the early days of the Republic. 

Burr was the bitter enemy of all Federalists; and, in 1804, he managed to 
draw Alexander Hamilton into a duel, which became the terrible result of a 
political quarrel. Burr murdered Hamilton, ^ and ever afterward society put the 
mark of Cain upon him. Two years afterwards he was engaged in forming an 
expedition in the western country, professedly to invade Mexico. It was sus- 
pected that Burr inte.nded to attempt a severance of the Western from the 
Eastern States, and make himself president of the former. He was arrested on 
a charge of high treason, tried at Richmond, in Virginia, in 1807, and acquitted. 
Ho passed the remainder of his life in comparative obscurity and almost total 
neglect. Profligate and unscrupulous until the last, that wretched man, whose 
libertinism had carried desolation into many households, went down into the 
grave, 

'• Unwept, unhonoied, and unsung;" 

a warning to all. He died on Staten Island, near New York, on the 14th of 
September, 1836, at the age of eighty years. 



JAMES THACHER. 

ONE of the latest survivors of the medical staff" of the Continental armj^, was 
James Thacher, M.D., whose interesting Journal kept during the entire 
war, was published in 1827, and is regarded as standard authority in relation to 
matters of which it treats. James Thacher was born at Barnstable, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1754. He studied medicine in his native town, under Dr. Abner 
Hersey, and was prepared to enter upon the practice of his profession, " at the 

1. The friends of both parties endeavored, in vain, to Fetde Ihe dispute without recourse to arms, but 
Burr seemed resolved on taking the life of Hamilton. He exacted such concessions and humiliating 
terms of compromise, as he knew no man of honor would agree to. Hamilton fired his pistol in the air, 
whila Burr, with fatal aim, sent a bullet with the errand of death. It was a foul murder. 



JAMES MADISON, D.D. 255 



precise time," he says, when ho found his country "about to be involved in all 
the horrors of a civil war." In July, 1^75, when only twenty-one years of age, 
he went to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, at Watertown, and solicited 
the appointment of assistant hospital surgeon, at Cambridge. With nine others 
he received the coveted appointment, and he continued in active duty in the 
hospital and camp until the capture of Cornwallis, at Yorktown. It was under 
his directions tliat the general inoculation of the American army for the small- 
pox was performed, at its encampment in the Hudson Highlands, opposite West 
Point, in tlie Spring of 1781. In his Journal, Dr. Thacher says, " All the soldiers, 
with tli3 women and children, who have not had the small-pox, are now dnder 
inoculation.^ .... Of five hundred who have been inoculated here, four 
only have died."'' Ho then mentions the interesting medical fact, that an ex- 
tract of butternut, made by boiling down tho inner bark of that tree, was very 
successfully substituted for the usual doses of calomel and jalap employed to 
reduce tho system. Ho found it to be more efficacious and loss dangerous than 
the mineral drug. He adds, concerning remedies found on our soil, "The butter- 
nut is the only cathartic deserving of confidence which wo have yet discovered." 
Dr. Thacher made his profession his life-vocation, after the war ; and he enjoyed 
the honors and veneration due to a faithful patriot in that struggle, for more 
than sixty years after tho eventful scenes at Yorktown. He wrote several medical 
works, and also n History of Plymouth. His Medical Jjiography is a work of 
much. value. Through life he indulged an antiquarian taste; and during his 
long residence in the elder town of New England, ho was a warm friend of the 
Pilgrim Society there. He died at Plymouth, on the 24th of May, 1844, at the 
age of ninety years. 



JAMES MADISON, D.D. 

'"PHE first Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia, was James 
X Madison, a native of Rockingham county, in that State, and for many years 
president (;f William and Mary College. Ho was born near Port Republic, on 
the 27th of August, 1749. His early education was acquired at an academy in 
Maryland; and, in 1768, he entered William and Mary College, as a student. 
He was graduated in 1772, and in addition to other collegiate honors, he received 
the gold medal assigned by Lord Botetourt as a prize for tho encouragement of 
classical literature. On leaving the college, young Madison commenced tho 
study of law under the aftsrward celebrated Chancellor Wythe, and v/as ad- 
mitted to the bar, but he felt called to the gospel ministry, and prepared himself 
for its duties. Ho visited England, and received j^riest's orclers; and on his 
return, in 1773, he wiis chosen Professor of Mathematics in William and Mary 
College. When only twenty-eiglit years of age (1777), ho was chosen president 
of that institution, and then again visited England to become better instructed 
in those acquirements which his station demanded. He returned in 1778, and then 
"commenced that long career of usefulness, which entitles him to be considered 
as one of the greatest benefactors of Virginia." In 1784, he resigned his Professor- 
ship of Mathematics, and became Professor of Natural and Moral Philosophy, 
and International Law. These and the presidency he retained until his death. 
^ Until 1776, the Church of England had been the established religion in Vir- 
ginia. That year the Virginia Assembly repealed all laws requiring" conformity 

I. SeeT)0fe2, page 61. 

'A. There was also a partial inoculation of the troops stationsrl at Morristown, in New Jersey- 



256 ABRAHAM BALDWIN. 

thereto. There had never been a resident Bishop in Virginia- At a convention 
held in Richmond, in 1785, presided over by Cr. Madison, the subject of a res- 
ident Bishop was considered ; and the following 3^ear Rev. Dr. Griffith was re- 
quested to proceed to England, with White and Provost, and receive consecra- 
tion. Circumstances prevented his going; and, in 1790, Dr. Madison was elected 
to fill the episcopate. lie Avas consecrated at Lambeth, in September of that 
year. Bishop Madison made his first episcopal visitation in 1792. Although ho 
labored with as much energy in the cause of his church, as a naturally feeb!o 
constitution and his college duties would allow, it continually declined, and be- 
came almost extinct. Many beautiful church edifices, built before the Revolu- 
tion, are now melancholy monuments of the decay of episcopacy in Virginia. 
The Protestant Episcopal Church there was finally revived under the evangelical 
labors of Bishop Moore, and is now in a flourishing condition. 

Bishop Madison continued to discharge the duties of his offices in William and 
Mary College oftcr his occupation in the episcopal field was almost ended. Ho 
died on the Gth of March, 1812, at the ago of about sixty-two years. Bishop 
Madison was an eminently literary man, and devout Christian professor. His 
remains are beneath a marble monument in the Chapel Hall of the Institution 
he so much loved and cherished. 



ABRAHAM BALDWIN. 

¥E have but slight records on the page of history of Abraham Baldwin, a 
brother-in-law of Joc^. Barlow, and, in many respects, one of the most 
useful of men. Ho was a native of Connecticut, but became an honored and 
much-beloved adopted citizen of the State of Georgia. He was born in 1754, 
and was graduated at Yale College at the ago of about eighteen years. From 
1775 until 1779, he was a tutor in that institution, and was one of the most 
eminent of the classical and mathematical scholars of that day. While teaching, 
he studied law, was admitted to practice, and then removed to Savannah. There 
he was admitted to the Georgia bar, and took an exalted position at once. 
Within three months after his arrival in Georgia, he Vv^as elected a member of 
the State legislature. Being an ardent friend of education, ho originated a plan 
for a university, drew up a charter by which it should bo endowed with forty 
thousand acres of land, and with the aid of John Milledge, procured the sanction 
of the legislature. The college, known as the University of Georgia, was located 
at Athens, and Josiah Meigs was appointed its first president. 

Mr. Baldwin was elected to a seat in Congress, in 178G, and the following 
year he was chosen to represent Georgia, with Colonel William Few as his col- 
league, in the convention that framed the Federal Constitution. He vv-as con- 
tinued a member of Congress for ten years after the organization of the ncvr 
government, when, in 1799, he and his friend Milledge were chosen United 
States Senators. He occupied that exalted position until his death, which oc- 
curred at Washington city, on the 4th of March, 1807, when ho was about fifty- 
three years of age. His remains were placed by the side of those of his friend. 
General James Jackson, in the Congressional burying-ground. Mr. Baldwin 
was never married. His f\ither died in 1787, and left six orphan children, half- 
brothers and sisters of Abraham. With the tenderness of a father he studied 
their welfare, and used his ample fortune in educating them all. They enjoyed 
his protection and aid until all were established for themselves in life-pursuits. 
A truly good man was lost to earth, when Abraham Baluwiu died. 



DEWITT CLINTON 




r>EWITT CLINTON. 

'' There are men whose forecast reaches far in advance of their generation, ani 
.1 whose sagacity works wonders for posterity. These are laughed at as idle 
dreamers by the many, and venerated as pliiiosophers and prophets by the few- 
Such was Dewitt Chuton, a son of James Chnton, a useful brigadier-general of 
the Revolution, who was born at Little Britain, in Orange county, New York, 
on the 2d of March, 1'769. He graduated at Columbia College, in 1786, became a 
lawyer, then private Secretary to his uncle, George Clinton, the first Republican 
governor of New York, and then a State Senator, in 1799. Even at this early 
period of his public life, his efforts were directed to the elevation of his fcllow- 
mon. Throughout his long political career he was the earnest and steadfast friend 
of education, and the rights of man. His powerful mind was brought to bear with 
great vigor upon the subject of legislative aid in furtherance of popular educa- 
tion, and also the abolition of human slavery in the State of New York. In 
1801, ho was appointed to a seat in the Senate of the United States, ar.d was 
annually elected mayor of the city of New York, f-om 1803 to 1815, except in 
1807 and 1810. Some of the noblest institutions for the promotion of art, liter- 
ature, science, and benevolence, in that city, were founded under his auspices.^ 



1. The chief of these were the New York Historical Society.the Academy of Fine Arts, and the Orphan Asylum. 
See sketch of Isabena Grabaai. 



17 



258 ^DANUS BURKE. 



He was an unsuccessful candidate for the ofl^ce of President of the United States, 
in 1812; and, in 1815, he withdrew from public life. 

Mr. Clinion was one of the earliest and most efficient supporters of Jesse 
Hawley's magnificent scheme for uniting Lake Erie with the Hudson river by a 
canal, first promulgated by that gentleman, in 1807; and, in 1817, Mr. Clinton 
having been called from his retirement into public life again, was chiefly instru- 
mental in procuring the passage of a law for constructing the great Erie Canal, 
at an estimated cost of five millions of dollars. He was elected governor of his 
State, and for three years, while holding that office, he brought all his official 
influence to bear in fovor of two grand projects — the establishment of a literature 
fund, and the construction of the canal. A strong party was arrayed against 
him, and many denounced the scheme of making a canal three hundred and 
sixty-three miles in length, as that of an insane mind. He and his friends per- 
severed; and, in 1825, that great work was completed. The event was cele- 
brated throughout the State by orations, processions, bonfires, and illuminations, 
and soon the madman was extolled as a wise benefactoi-. He was again elected 
governor of his State, by an overwhelming majority. In 1826, he declined the 
honor of ambassador to P]ngland, offered him by President Adams, and was 
reelected governor. He now strongly urged a change in the State Constitution 
(since effected), so as to allow universal suffrage at elections. While in the 
midst of his popularity and usefulness, he died suddenly, at Albany, on the 11th 
of February, 1828, at the age of fifty-nine years. Mr. Clinton was a fine writer, 
a good speaker, and an industrious seeker afler knowledge of every kind. Some 
of his essays and addresses are choice specimens of composition, embodying deep 
thought and clear logic. His enduring monument is the Erie Canal, whose bosom 
has borne sufficient food to appease tlie hunger of the whole earth, and poured 
millions of treasure into the coffers of the State. 



.^E DAN US BURKE. 

THE honest heart, jolly wit, and varied accomplishments of Judge Burke, of 
South Carolina, are matters of historic record, and cannot bo forgotten. Ho 
was a native of Gal way, Ireland, where he was born about the year 1743, At 
the commencement of the American Revolution, he came to fight for liberty, for 
he was a democrat of truest stamp. His heart was filled with the sentiment, 
" Where liberty dwells, there is my country." Ho made his abodo in Charleston, 
and was active in the early mihtary events in that vicinity. lie was a lawyer 
by profession, and considering his services more valuable in civil than in military 
aflfairs, the provincial legislature appointed him a judge of the Supreme Court of 
the newly-organized State, in 1778. AVhen Charleston fell, and tho South lay 
prostrate at the feet of British power, in 1780, Judge Burke took a commission 
in the army. He resumed the judicial office when the Republicans regained 
tho State, early in 1782. He was opposed to the Federal Constitution, because 
he feared consolidated power, yet he served as the first United States Senator 
from South Carolina, under that instrument. His Federalist friends told him 
that he had been sent to see that the corruptions and abuses which ho had pre- 
dicted should not be practiced. He had already made his name conspicuous by 
his published essay against some of the aristocratic features of tho Cincinnati 
Society ; and while in Congress he Avas the favorite friend of Aaron Burr. He after- 
ward iaecame Ciiancellor of the State of North Carolina. Wit, humor, and convivi- 
ality, were liis distinguishing social characteristics. The former were ever visible - 



JOHN TRUMBULL. 259 



whether he was on the bench or in the drawing-room ; while the latter finally 
became such a habit that he was its slave. He lived a bachelor, and was the 
soul of every dinner-party, whether abroad or at liis own house. Inebriation 
finally clouded his intellect, and at length his body became excessively dropsical. 
On one occasion, when his physician had '"tapped" him, and while the water 
was flowing freely, the judge coolly observed, "I wonder where all that water 
can come from, as I am sure that I never drank as much since I arrived at years 
of discretion." On l)eing assured by one of his friends that he would be better 
after the operation, he replied, "Nothing in my house is better after being 
tappedy His levity continued until his last moments, and he died as " the fool 
dieth " because he had "lived as the fool liveth." He was one of many sad 
examples which young men of talent should study as warnings. He died at 
Charleston, on the 30th of March, 1802, at the age of fifty-nine years, and was 
buried in the grave-yard of the Episcopal Church, near Jacksonborough.' 



JOHN TRUMBULL. 

THE name of Trumbull is identified with the history of New j^^ngland, in various 
ways. We have already given sketches of the governor and the artist^ of 
that name ; we will now consider Trumbull the poet. He was born in Water- 
town, New Haven county, Connecticut, on the 24th of April, 1750. He was an 
only son, delicate in physical constitution, and a favorite of his accomplished 
mother. He was an exceedingly precocious child, and at the age of seven years 
was considered qualified to enter Yale College, as a student. There he was 
graduated, in 17G7, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and remained a student 
three years longer. He turned his attention chiefly to polite literature, as well 
as the Greek and Latin classics, and became a most accomplished scholar. He 
and Timothy Dwight became intimate friends, and the bond of mutual attach- 
ment was severed only by death. They were co-essayists, in 1769 ; and, in 1 771, 
they were both appointed tutors in the college. The following year young 
Trumbull published the first part of a poem entitled The Progress of Dulness. 
He selected the law as his profession, and devoted much of his leisure time to 
its study. He was admitted to the bar in 1773, but immediately afterward went 
to Boston, and placed himself under the instruction of John Adams. He com- 
menced the practice of law at Hartford, in 1781, and soon became distinguished 
for legal acumen and forensic eloquence. During his residence in Boston, ho 
had conceived the idea of a satirical poem, in which the British and Tories should 
figure conspicuously; and, in 1782. his J/'i^/«5'aZ was completed, and pubhshed 
at Hartford. He was soon afterward associated with Humphreys, Barlow, and 
Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, in the production of a work which they styled The Anar- 
chiad. It contained bold satire, and exerted considerable influence on the pop- 
ular taste. 

In 1789, Mr. Trumbull was appointed State Attorney for the county of Hart- 
ford; and, in 1792, he represented that district in the Connecticut legislature. 
His health failed; and, in 1795, he resigned his office, and declined all public 
business. Toward the close of 1798, a severe illness formed the crisis of his 

1. Many anecdotes are preserved concerning Judge Burke's absent-mindedness. It was the custom 
for the j'.idges in Charleston, during the sessions, to leave their gowns at a dry-good's store near the court- 
house, when they went to their meals. The owner of this s:ore was Miss Van Rhyn, a middle-aged 
maiden lady, who carefully hung the judicial robes upon pegs where her own clothing was suspended. 
On one occasion. Judge Knrke took down his robe (as he supposed) hastily, went with, it under his arm, 
and proceeded to array himself preparatory to the opening of the court. He found much difficulty in 
getting it on, when all at once he exclaimed, before an audience uproarious with laughter, " Before God, 
I have got into^tiss Van Rhyn's petticoat !" 



260 STEPHEN VAN EENSSELAER. . 

nervous excitement, and after that his health was much better. He was again 
elected to a seat in the State legislature, iif Ma}^, 1800, and the following year 
he was appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. From that time 
he abandoned party politics, as inconsistent with judicial duties. In 1808, he 
was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. In 1820, he revised his 
works, and they were published in Hartford, in handsome style, by S. G. Good- 
rich, now [1854] American consul at Paris. He received a handsome compen- 
sation for them. He and his wife afterward wont to Detroit, and made their 
abode with a son-in-law. There Judge Trumbull died, on the 10th of May, 1831, 
at the age of eighty-one years. 



STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER. 

FIFTH in lineal descent from Killian Van Rensselaer, the earliest and best 
known of the American Patroons,^ was Stephen Van Rensselaer, one of the 
best men of his time, in the highest sense of that term. He was born at the 
manor-house, near Albany, New York, on the 1st of November, 1764. He was 
the eldest son, and inherited the immense manorial estates of his father, known 
as the Fatroon Lands. That parent died when Stephen was quite young, and 
the boy and the estate were placed under the supervision of guardians, one of 
whom was Philip Livingston, his maternal grandfather. Born to a princely 
fortune and highest social station in the New World, young Van Rensselaer 
was educated accordingly. He was a student in the college at Princeton, for 
some time, and completed his education at Harvard University, where he was 
graduated in 1182. The War for Independence had just closed when he at- 
tained his majority, but the conflicts of opinion respecting the establishment of a 
new government had yet to be waged. In these discussions Mr. Van Rensselaer 
took a decided and active part, and he was repeatedly elected to a seat in the 
New York Assembly. He was a warm supporter of the Federal Constitution, 
and battled manfully for it and the administration of AVashington, side bj^ side 
with Hamilton, Jay, and Madison. In 1795, he was elected lieutenant-governor 
of his native State, when John Jay was chief magistrate, and he held that sta- 
tion six years. His friends predicted for him, a brilliant official career, but the 
defeat of the Federal party, in 1800, and the continued ascendency of the Re- 
publican, closed his way to distinction through the mazes of political warfare. 

When war was declared against Great Britain, in 1812, Mr. Van Rensselaer, 
bearing the commission of a major-general, was placed, by Governor Tompkins, 
in command of the New York militia, destined for the defence of the northern 
frontier^ Those were a part of his troops, under General Solomon Van Rensselaer, 
who assisted in the battle at Queenstown. After the war, General Van Rensselaer 
was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress, where he served his country dur- 
ing several consecutive sessions. By his casting-vote in the delegation of New 
York, he gave the presidency of the United States to John Quincy Adams. 
With that session closed the political life of Stephen Van Rensselaer, but he still 
labored on and hoped on in the higher sphere of duty of a benevolent Christian. 
Like his Master whom he loved, he was ever "meek and lowly," and "Avent 

1. To encourage the emigration of an agricultural population to New Netherland (as New York was 
originally called), the Dutch West India ("ompany, under whose auspices the province was founded, 
granted to certain persons who should lead or send a certain number of families to make a settlement 
in America, large tracts of land with specified social and political privileges. Among the directors of 
the company who availed themselves of the offer, was Killian Van Rensselaer, who became the proprietor 
of Rensselaerwick, a territory in the vicinity of Albany about forty-eight miles long, and Iwenly- 
four wide. It was established in 16.S7, and the proprietor was called a Patioon, or patron ; a name de- 
rived from the civil law of Rome, which was given to owners of large landed estates. 



STEPHEN VAN" EENSSELAER. 



261 




about doing good." Frugal in personal expenditures, he was lavish, yet dis- 
criminating, in his numerous beneflictions. He did not wait for Misery to call 
at his door; he sought out the children of Want. To the poor and the ignorant 
he was a blessing. In 1824, he founded a seminary for tlie purpose of "quali- 
fying teachers for instructing tlie children of farmers and mechanics in the ap- 
plication of experimental chemistry, philosophy, and natural history,' to agricul- 
ture, domestic economy, the arts, and manufactures." He liberally endowed it, 
and the ^'■Rensselaer SchooV^ is a perpetual hymn to the memory and praise of 
its benefactor. In the cause of the Bible, Temperance, and every social and 
moral reform, Mr. Van Rensselaer's time and money were freely given ; and in 
these labors he continued until death. He was an early and efficient friend of 
internal improvements, and, on the death of Dewitt Clinton, he was appointed 
president of the Board of Canal Commissioners. He held tliat station during the 
remainder of his life. Tliat "good citizen and honest man" died on the 26th of 
January, 1 840. in the seventy-fifth year of his aere. 



262 WASHIN'GTON ALLSTON. — WILLIAM MOULTRIE. 



WASHINOTON ALT^STON. 

Y[0 man ever possessed a more exquisite appreciation of the Beautiful, than 
i 1 Wasliington Allston, one of the most gifted of painters, and 3'et no man 
ever kept the Beautiful in more severe subordination to the Good and True, in 
th3 productions of both his pencil and pen. That appreciation made him shrink 
from frequent efforts in tlie higher department of his art, for he felt the impuis- 
sance of his hand in the delineations of the glorious visions of his genius. It has 
been well observed by Professor Shedd, that Allston accomplished so little, be- 
cause he thought so much. This gifted painter and poet was born in South 
Carolina, in 1780, and was educated at Harvard College, where he was graduated 
in the year 1800. His genius for art was early developed; and, in 1801, ho 
went to Europe, to study the works of the best masters there. He remained 
abroad eight years, and enjoyed the friendship of the most distinguished poets 
and painters of England and the Continent. In painting, "West, Reynolds, and 
Fuseli were his instructors; and Wordsworth, Southoy, and Coleridge, were his 
c'lief literary companions. Xo private American ever made a better or more 
1 istmg impression abroad, than Washington Allston. As a colorist, he wiis 
styled the American Titian. A small volume of his poems was issued in London, 
in 1813; and in later productions of his pen, he exhibited a power in writing 
elegant prose, surpassed by few. But ho is chief!}' known to the world as a 
painter, and as such posterity will speak of him. His chief works are The Dead 
Man restored to Life hy Elijah; Elijah in the Desert; JacolPs Dream; The Angd 
liberating Peter from Prison ; Saul and the Witch of Endor ; Uriel in the Su7i ; 
Gabriel setting the Guard of the Heavenly Host ; Spalatro^s Vision of the Bloody 
Hand; Ayme Page, and several exquisite smaller works. He was engaged on 
his greatest work — Belshazzar^s Feast — when his final sickness fell upon him, 
and he was not permitted to finish it. It exhibits great powers of intellect and 
taste ; and, as far as it is completed, it presents the embodiment of the highest 
conceptions of true genius. Most of his life was spent at Cambridge, Massa- 
chusetts, where he was educated ; and there the " painter-poet and the poet- 
painter" left earth for the sphere of Intelligence and Beauty, on the 9th of July, 
1843, when in the sis:ty-fourth year of his age. 



WIT.LIAM MOULTRIE. 

C'EVERiVL of those who, during the War for Independence, acted its histor}', 
U have since written its history, and the truths of those great events can 
never be obscured by the fictions of posterity. Among those who have played 
(hat two-fold part in the drama recorded in our annals, is William Moultrie, 
ivhose valor won the honor of having the fort he defended bear his name. Ho 
[\^as a native of South Carolina., where he was born, in 1730. He was descended 
from one of that Huguenot company of which Marion's ancestor was a member, 
And inherited the patient endurance, courage, and love of liberty of that per- 
^ecated people. History first notices him as a subaltern in an expedition against 
';he Cherokee Indians, in 1760, under the command of Governor Littleton. He 
<vas also prominent in subsequent expeditions against that unhappy people. Ho 
was active in civil affairs before the Revolution ; and, when the hour for decision 
ix that matter came, he was found in the ranks of the patriots as a military 
officer. When, early in the Summer of 1776, a strong land and naval forc-a 



JO^N LAMB. 263 



menaced Charleston, Moultrie, bearing the commission of a colonel, took com- 
mand of Fort Sullivan, in the harbor, and bravely defended it while cannons on 
British war-vessels were pouring an incessant storm of iron upon it.' For that 
gallant defence he was promoted to a brigadier, and the fort was named Iloultrie, 
in his honor.- From that time until the fall of Charleston, in 1780, General 
Moultrie was one of the most efficient of the Southern officers, on the field of 
action, or as a disciplinarian in camp. After the surrender of Charleston, he was 
kept a prisoner in the vicinity, for awhile, and was then paroled to Philadelphia, 
where he remained until the close of hostilities, in 1782. After his return home 
he was chosen governor of his native State, and was repeatedly reelected to 
that office. His integrity as a statesman and public officer was a bright example; 
his disinterestedness was beyond all praise. His fellow-citizens honored him 
with truest reverence, and his intimate acquaintances loved him for his many 
private virtues. The infirmities of age at length admonished him to retire to 
private life ; and in domestic repose he prepared his Memoirs of the Revolution 
in the South, which were published in two octavo volumes, in 1802. Like a 
bright sun setting without an obscuring cloud, the hero and sage descended 
peacefully to his final rest, on the 27th of September, 1805, at the age of seventy- 
five yearso 



JOHN LAMB. 

THE Sons of Liberty in New York were distinguished for their loyalty to re- 
publican principles, their zeal in the promotion of popular freedom, and 
their boldness in every hour of difficulty and danger. Among the most fearless 
of those early patriots was John Lamb, son of an eminent optician and mathe- 
matical instrument maker. He was born in the city of New York, on the 1st 
of January, 1735. He received a good common education, and learned the 
business of his father. He abandoned it in 1760, and became an extensive wine 
merchant. Through all the exciting times until the kindling of the War for 
Independence, Mr. Lamb was extensively engaged in the liquor trade, and, at 
the same time, was one of the most active politicians of the day, after the pass- 
ago of the Stamp Act had aroused the American people. He spoke French and 
German fluently, was a good scholar, and was exceedingly expert in the use of 
his tongue and pen. These he devoted to the public good. On one occasion, 
in 17G9, when an inflammatory hand-bUl had called "the betrayed inhabitants 
to the fields,"-^ Lamb harangued the multitude in seditious words. He was taken 
before the Legislative Assembly to testify concerning the authorship of tlie hand- 
bill, but was soon discharged.-* This event intensified his zeal, and he continued 

1. Darin? the action, a cannon ball cut (lie .Vmerican flag-stafT, and the banner fell outside of the fort. 
S3rge:inl William Jasper, of Moultrie's regiment, immediately leaped down fiom the parapet, picked up 
the flag while the balls were falling thick and fast, coolly fastened it to a sponge stall, and unturled it 
again over the bastion of the fort. For this daring feat, CJovernor Rulledge presented Jasper wifh his 
own sword, the next day, and oiTered him a lieutenant's commission. The 3-ouiig hero modestly re- 
fused it, saying, " I can neither read nor write ; I am not fit to keep ofiBcers' company ; 1 am on.y a 
sergeant." 

2. On the day when the enemy departed from Charleston, Mrs. Bernard Elliott (a nieceof Mrs Rebecca 
Mntte), presented General Moultrie's regiment with a pair of elegant silk colors, wrought by the ladies 
of Charleston. These were afterward planted upon the fortifications at Savannah, when Lincoln and 
D'Estaiug besieged that city, in October, 1779. Both the young officers who bore them were kil ed. 
Sergeant Jasper was there, and, seizing one of them, he mounted a bastion, when he, too, was killea 
hy a bullet. These flags were surrendered at Charleston, in 1780, and were afterward trophies in ihe 
Tower of London. „ , „ j mu r ij„ n 

•S. The ground now occupied by the Citv Hall and its surrounding Park was called the helds. 
There a " Liberty Pole " was erected, and there the popular assemblages were held. 
4. The hand-bill was written by Alexander MacDougall, afterward a general in the Cootinental army. 



264 EED JACKET. 



to be an accepted political leader until 1775, when he entered the artillery ser- 
vice Of' the army, with the commission of captain. He accompanied Montgomery 
to Q;iebeo at tiie close of that year. He was severely wounded there, in the 
cheek, b/ a grape-shot, and was made prisoner. Soon after that he was pro- 
moted to major, and appointed to the command of the artillery in the Northern 
Department, but was not exchanged, and allowed to enter the service again, until 
early in 1777, when Congress gave him the commission of lieutenant-colonel, under 
tiie immediate command of General Knox. We cannot here even enumerate 
his mult farious duties, as commander of artiller_v, during the remainder of the 
war. It is sufficient to say that he was everywhere brave and skilful, and shared 
in the dangers and honors of the final victory at Yorktown. He was as warm 
a politician after the war as before it, and served his fellow-citizens fiithfully in 
the legislature of his native State. After the organization of the federal govern- 
ment, Washington appointed him collector of customs at the port of New York, 
and he held that office until his death, on the 31st of May, 1800, at the age of 
sixty-five years. Then u patriot of truest stamp was lost ^,o the world. 



RED JACKET. 

THE renowned Seneca warrior and orator, Sa-go-ije-wa-ihee, the Red Jacket,' 
was born about the year 1750, near the spot where the city of Bufialo now 
stands, that being the chief place of residence of the Seneca leaders. Tradition 
alone has preserved a few facts concerning his youth. He was always remark- 
ably swift-footed, and was ofcen employed as a courier among his own people. 
He took part with the British and Tories during the Revolution, but was more 
noted for his power as an orator in arousing the Senecas to action, than as a 
leader upon the war-path. Brant, whom Red Jacket's ambition greatly annoyed, 
even charged him with cowardice during Sullivan's campaign in the Seneca 
country, in 1779, and always spoke of Red Jacket with mingled feehngs of 
hatred and contempt, as a traitor and dishonest man.2 The celebrated Seneca 
first appears in historj^ in the record of Sullivan's campaign, and then in an un- 
favorable light. After that we have no trace of him until 1784, when he ap- 
peared at the great treaty at Fort Stanwix (now Rome), where, by certain con- 
cessions of territory by the Six Nations, they were brought under the protection 
of the United States. There the eloquence of Red Jacket beamed forth in great 
splendor; and there, too, the voice of the eloquent Cornplanter^ was heard. Red 
Jacket was prominent at a council held at the mouth of the Detroit river, in 
1786. After that there were many disputes and heart-burnings between the 
white people and the Indians of Western New York, concerning land titles, and 
Red Jacket was always the eloquent defender of the rights of his people. At 
all treaties and councils he was the chief orator. He frequently visited the seat 

1. This name was given him from the circumstance that a British ofliieer, toward the close of the 
Revolution, gave him a lichly-erabioideied scarlet jacket, which he took great pleasure in wearing. 
Others were presented to him, as one was worn out ; and even as late as the treaty at Canandaigua, in 
1794, Captain Paiish, one of the United States' interpreters, gave him one. The red jacket became his 
distinctive dress, and procured him the name by which he is best known. 

2. Thomis Morris says that Red Jacket was called the cow-killer from the circumstance that, having 
on one occ ision during the Revolution, aroused his people to fight, was found, during the engagement, 
in a place of safety, cutting up a cow that he had killed, which belonged to another Indian. When 
Cornplanter, Brant, and Red Jacket, were at Morris' tc^le, one day, Cornplanter told the story, as if 
another Indian had committed the act. The narrator and i>rant laughed heartily, and Red Jacket en- 
deavored io join ihem, but was evidently very much embarrassed, 

3. See sketch of Cornplanter. 



RED JACKET. 



265 




of our national government, in behalf of his race, and was always treated with 
the utmost respect' 

Unlike Cornplanter, Red Jacket's paganism never yielded to the gentle in- 
fluences of Christianity, and he was the most inveterate enemy to all missionary 
efforts among the Senecas. He had become a slave to strong drink, and he 
attributed tlio prevalence of the vice among his people to the missionaries, who, 
he said, sold liquor to the Indians, and cheated them of property. On the i)reak- 
ing out of the war, in 1812, the Senecas, under the leadership of Red Jacket, 
declared themselves neutral, but they soon became allies of the United States, 
and engaged in hostilities on the Canada frontier. Red Jacket was in the bloody 
battle at Chippewa, and behaved well, but he seems to have been constitution- 
ally a coward, and was always far braver in council than in the field. Yet this 
cowardice in battle, though well known to the nation, did not lessen their affec- 
tion for him, nor materially weaken his influence as head Chief of the Senecas. 

Red Jacket had a large family of children, some of whom, like their mother, 
became professing Christians.2 Eleven of them died of that terrible disease, the 
consumption^ one after another, and Red Jacket felt his bereavement to be the 
chastisement of the Great Spirit for his habitual drunkenness. On being asked 
about his family, by a lady who once knew them, the chief said, sorrowfully, "Red 



1. On one occasion, Washington presented a large silver medal to Red Jacket, bearing the representa- 
tion of a white man and an Indian shaking hands, and the names of Washington and Red Jacket en- 
graved npon it. 

2. His second wife became a professed Christian, i i 182G. She is represented as a woman of remaik- 
ablo personal dignity and superiority of mind. Her conversion alienated her husband for Feveral 
months, and he resided some distance from her. He finally thought better of it. »«ked and obtained her 
forgiveness, and they lived in perfect harmony afterv.'.'vrd. 



26G HENRY CRUGER. 



Jacket was once a great man, and in favor with the Great Spirit. He was a 
lofty pine among the smaller trees of the Ibrest. But after years of glory he 
degraded himself by drinking the fire-water of the white man. The Great Spirit 
has looked upon him in anger, and his lightning has stripped the pine of its 
branches /" 

The influence of Christianity and civilization upon the Seneca nation disturbed 
the repose of Red Jacket, during the latter part of his life. These influences, 
working with a general disgust produced by his excessive intemperance, alien- 
ated his people; and, in 1827, he was formally deposed.' It was a dreadful 
blow to the proud chief; and he went to Washington city to invoke the aid of 
government in his behalf He returned with good advice in his memorj-, ob- 
tained a grand council, and was restored to authority. But his days were al- 
most numbered. He soon afterward became imbecile, and, in a journey to tho 
Atlantic sea-board, he permitted himself to be exhibited in museums, for money! 
At last the greatest of all Indian orators was called away. He died on the 20th 
of January, 1830, at the age of about eighty years. Over his grave, Henry 
Placide, the comedian, placed an inscribed slab of marble, in 1839. 



HENRY CllUGER. 

ONE of the chief grievances of which the American colonists complained was 
the fact that they were compelled to suffer taxation, without enjoying tho 
privilege of representation, and were thus, practically, the victims of tyranny. 
Yet they toe7^e represented by a few, in the British parliament, when the quarrel 
which resulted in dismemberment was progressing, but of that few, only one was 
a native of the western world. It was Henry Cruger, who was born in the city 
of New York, in 1739. On arriving at manhood, he joined his father, who had 
established himself as a merchant in the American trade, at Bristol, England. 
The elder Cruger was highly esteemed, and became mayor of Bristol ; an honor 
afterward bestowed upon his son. It is worthy of remark here, that father and 
son, belonging to another branch of the Cruger familj^, were, at about the same 
time, successively honored with the mayoralty of the city of New York. 

In 1774, Henry Cruger was elected to a seat in Parliament, as representative 
of the city of Bristol, having for his colleague the afterward eminent Edmund 
Burke. That then fledgling statesman was introduced at the hustings by Mr. 
Cruger, and delivered an address at the conclusion, which elicited warm ap- 
plause. It is reported that a gentleman present exclaimed, "I say ditto to Mr. 
Burke." That laconic sentence became a "bye-word," and was erroniously at- 
tributed to Mr. Cruger. Tho speeches of Mr. Cruger, in Parliament, were marked 
by sound common sense and great logical force ; and on all occasions he urged 
the necessity of a conciliatory course toward the Americans. Like Lord Chatham, 
he deprecated a severance of the colonies from the British realm; but, in 1780, 
when the continuance of union became impossible, he declared that "the Amer- 
ican war should be put an end to, at all events, in order to do which the inde- 
pendency must be allowed, and the thirteen provinces treated as free States." 
His course pleased his constituents, who, on various occasions, testified their 
warmest approbation. After the war, he returned to his native city, and was 
elected a member of the Senate of the State of New York. He died in the city 

1 . The act of deposition, written in the Seneca language, was signed by twenty-six chief men of ♦'" ^ 



JAMES A. BAYAED. 267 

of New York, on the 24tli of April, 1827, at the age of eighty-eight years. His 
brother, John Harris Cruger, who was in the British military service previous 
to the Revolution, adhered to the crown, and was in command of a corps of 
Loyalists at the South. He held the commission of a lieutenant-colonel, and 
commanded the garrison at Fort Ninety-Six when it was besieged by General 
Greene. Colonel Cruger was a son-in-law of Colonel Oliver Delancey. He died 
in London, in 1807, at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife died at Chelsea, 
England, in 1822, at the age of seventy-eight years. 



JAMES A. BAYARD. 

WHEM, in 1814, the American and British governments resolved to close an 
unprofitable and fratricidal war, by a treaty of peace, the most accom- 
plished statesmen in the Union were chosen commissioners, to meet those of 
Great Britain, at Ghent, in Belgium, to negotiate. On that commission was 
James A. Bayard, an eminent statesman of Delaware. He was bom in the city 
of Philadelphia, on the 28th of July, 1767. At a very early age he became an 
orphan, and was adopted by an affectionate uncle, who took special care to have 
him thoroughly educated. His studies were completed in the College at Prince- 
ton, New Jersey, where he was graduated with the highest honors, in 1784, at 
the age of seventeen years. He chose the profession of law, studied it with 
great assiduity, under General Joseph Reed and Jared Ingersoll, and was ad- 
mitted to the bar, in August, 1787. He was married in 1795, and the following 
year he was a successful Federal candidate for a seat in Congress, where he first 
appeared in May, 1797. There he was noted for his industry, integrity, and con- 
sistency ; and during his services as a member of the House of Representatives, 
from 1797 until 1804, no man was more highly esteemed for talents and personal 
worth than Mr. Bayard. 

When, in the Winter of 1801, the choice between Jefferson and Burr, the 
Republican candidates for President of the United States, devolved upon the 
House of Representatives, and Mr. Bayard and three other Federal members 
held the choice in their own hands, his colleagues submitted the matter to his 
judgment, and he ibrtunately gave the office to Jefferson. A few daj^s after- 
ward President Adams appointed Mr. Bayard minister plenipotentiary to France, 
but he patriotically declined it for political reasons. In 1804, he was elected to 
a seat in the United States Senate, to fill a vacancy; and, in February, 1805, 
he was reelected for the full term of six years. In that body, also, he was an 
esteemed leader; and, in 1811, the legislature of Delaware again elected him 
United States Senator, for another full term. He opposed the declaration of 
war against Great Britain, in 1812, but, when a majority in Congress gave sanc- 
tion to the measure, he cheerfully acquiesced, and, it is said, actually labored 
witli his own hands in the erection of defences at Wilmington, where he resided. 
In 1813, the Emperor of Russia offered his mediation between the United States 
and Great Britain, and Mr. Bayard and Albert Gallatin were sent to St. Peters- 
burg to negotiate. There they remained six months, when, hearing nothing 
from England, they proceeded to Amsterdam. They arrived in that city in 
March, 1814. There they were informed that England would not accept tho 
mediation of Russia, but was ready to treat for peace with the United States. 
Thev were also informed that Messrs. Adams, Clay, and Russell, had been added 
<;0 ilie commission. All finally met with the British commissioners at Ghent, 



268 ELI AS HICKS. 



in August, 1814, where they remained until the 24th of December following 
when ^a treaty was agreed upon and signecf.^ Fourteen days afterward, Mr 
Bayard left Ghent for Paris; and on the 4th of March, 1815, while in that city, 
he was seized with a fatal, but lingering disease. He waited there until duty 
should call him to London to negotiate a treaty of commerce, with which service 
the commission had been charged. Greatly debilitated, he reached England 
at the middle of May, where he was met by a commission, appomting him min- 
ister to Russia. Feeling that death was now rapidly approaching, he declined 
the honor, and hastened home. He arrived at Wilmington on the 1st of August, 
where his family received him with mingled tears of joy and grief, after an ab- 
sence of more than two years. Five days afterward he departed to that distant 
land beyond the grave, from which there is no return. He died on the 6tli of 
August, 1815, when a little more than forty-eight years of age. 



ELI AS HICKS. 

THE Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, having but one accepted 
standard of faith and discipline, were remarkable for their unity until about 
1825, when Elias Hicks, a distinguished and influential preacher, boldly enun- 
ciated Unitarian doctrines. This produced much dissatisfaction, and the hitherto 
united and peaceful society exhibited two parties, styled respectively Orthodox, 
or Trinitarians, and HicksUes, or Unitarians, and was agitated by much and 
violent party feelings. The breach widened, and finally a separation took place. 
The two parties assumed distinct organizations, and the Unitarians, being in the 
majority, generally took possession of the meeting-houses, and compelled the 
Orthodox to erect new ones. The breach still continues. 

Elias Hicks was born in Hempstead, Long Island, on the 19th of March, 1748. 
Of his early life we have no record, except that it Avas passed in the quiet pur- 
suits of a farmer. He was married in January, 1771, and at about that period 
was acknowledged a member of the Society of Friends. Four years afterward 
he first appeared as a minister ; and for fift^^-three years he was a teacher among 
his brethren. During that time ha travelled extensively throughout the United 
States and Upper Canada ; and at the age of eighty v ears he visited his brethren 
and sisters in Xew Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, and Indiana, like 
Paul, "confirming them in the faith." Soon after his return home, his wife died, 
and the following Summer he visited the northern and western parts of the 
State of ISTew York, everywhere preaching with great clearness and power. 
The writer heard him at that time, and remembers well how logically he set 
forth the doctrine which he had espoused and then ably advocated. His labors 
ceased six months afterward. On the 4th of February, 1830, he wrote a long 
and interesting letter to a "Western friend, and immediately afterward his wholo 
right side was smitten with paralysis. Ho died on the 27th of the same month, 
aged eighty-two j^ears. During his ministry, ho travelled almost ten thousand 
miles, and delivered at least one thousand discourses.^ 

1. Bayard's colleagues were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert (xallatin. 
Those of (ireat Britaiu were Lord Gambier, Henry Goulbourn, and William Adams. 

2. An anecdote is told which illustrates his conscientiousness. He was informed by his son-in-law 
that a man who owed them both had become a bankrupt, " but," said the son, "he lias secured Ihee 
and me." " Has he secured all?" inquired the old man. On receiving a reply in the negative, he said, 
" That is not right ;" and he insisted upon the creditors placing him and his son-in-law on the same 
footing with others. 



COUNT RUMFOED. 



269 




^^^y^^/g/f t>-9^\^ 



COUNT RUMFOKO. 

BY industry, perseverance, and integrity, working in harmony with genius and 
a truly benevolent spirit, Benjamin Thompson, a humble New Hampshire 
schoolmaster, became a " Count of the Holy Roman Empire," and a companion 
of kings and philosophers. He was born at Woburn, Massachusetts, on the 
28th of March, 1753. His widowed mother was in comfortable circumstances, 
and the common school furnished him with an elementary education. He was 
a merchant's clerk, at Salem, for awhile, and then commenced the study of 
medical science in his native town. He attended lectures at Cambridge, in 1771, 
and employed a portion of his time in teaching schools, first at Wilmington, and 
then at Bradford. He was finally invited to take charge of a school at Rum- 
ford (now Concord), in New Hampshire. The flime of his philosophical experi- 
ments already made preceded him, and his handsome face, noble person, and 
grace of manners, made him a favorite. Before he was twenty years of age, he 
was the husband of a young and weahhy widow, daughter of Rev. Timothy 
Wallcer, minister of the town. His talent' and this connection gave him high 
social position, at once, and he found leisure to pursue scientific investigations. 
Thus he was employed when the storms of the Revolution began to gather 
darkly. The time came when he must make public choice of party — be active, 
or suffer suspicion. With conscientious motives, he dechned to act with the 



270 COUNT RUMFORD. 



Whigs. His neutrality was construed as opposition, and he was finally cooi- 
pelled to fly, for personal safet}'-, to the protection of the British, in Boston, leav- 
ing behind hira all he held most dear on earth — mother, wife, child, friends, and 
fortune. That persecution, under Providence, led to his greatness. 

Mr. Thompson remauied in Boston until the Spring of 1776, when General 
Howe sent him to England with important despatches for the British ministry 
concerning the evacuation of the New England capital. The ministry appre- 
ciated his worth, and scientific men sought his acquaintance. He was oftered 
public e.nployment, and accepted it ; and in less than four years after he landed 
in England, a homeless exile, he was made Under-Secretary of State. In ]782, 
ho was in America a short time, but could not see his family. The following 
year he Ayent to Germany, bearing letters of introduction from eminent men in 
England, He was introduced to the Elector of Bavaria, who at once offered 
him honorable employment in his service. He repaired to England to ask per- 
mission to accept it, received the favor, and was knighted by the king. Soon 
after liis return to Munich he entered upon public service, and the '" Yankee 
schoolmaster," like Joseph, became the second man in the kingdom. The Elec- 
tor made him Lieutenant-G-eneral ; Commander-in-chief of the Staff; Minister of 
War; Member of the Council of State; a Knight of Poland; Member of the 
Academy of Sciences in three cities; Commander-in-chief of the General Staff; 
Superintendent of the Police of Bavaria, and Chief of the Regency during the 
sovereign's compulsory absence, in 1796. He accomplished great civil and 
military reforms, ia Bavaria; and during his ten years' service, he produced 
such salutary changes in the condition of the people, that he won the unbounded 
love and admiration of all classes.' When, in 1796, Munich was assailed by an 
Austrian army. Sir Benjamin Thompson commanded the Bavarian troops, and 
he conducted the defence so successfully that he won the highest praises through- 
out Europe. The Bavarian monarch attested his appreciation of his great ser- 
vices, by creating him a Count of the Holy Roman Empire. He chose the name 
of the birth-place of his wife and child for his title, and henceforth he was known 
as Count of Rumford. 

In 1792, Sir Benjamin had heard of the death of his wife. He had soon after- 
ward visited England, on account of ill-health, where he remained some time, 
engaged in scientific pursuits. From there, in 1794, he wrote to his daughter, 
the infant he left behind, to join him. She did so, early in 1796. She was then 
a charming girl of twenty years, and, with a father's pride, he conveyed her to 
Munich, introduced her at court, and placed her at the head of his household. 
Ill health again compelled him to travel, and he went to England, bearing the 
highly honorable commission of Bavarian minister at the court of St. James. 
He could not be received, as such, for the laws of English citizenship would not 
allOiV it. At about that time he received an invitation from the American gov- 
ern.nent to visit his native land. Circumstances prevented his compliance, and 
he again went to Munich, where he remained until the death of the Elector, in 
1799, when he quitted Bavaria forever. He went to Paris, married the widow 
of the celebrated Lavoisier, and at a beautiful villa at Auteil, near Paris, he 
passed the remainder of his days in literary and scientific pursuits, and in the 
society of the most learned men in Europe. There he died, on the 21st of 
August, 1814, in the sixty-second year of his age. His daughter inherited his 

1. He established a military workhouse at Maiiheim, and, by strinj^ent, yet benevolent regulations, he 
almost totally abolished vagrancy and mendicity from Munich, which had ever been noted for these 
nuisances. In the exercise of his goo 1 taste and enterprise, lie greatly adorned and beautified Munich. 
A barren waste near the city was converted into a charming park for the enjoyment of the people, and 
there pleasure-gardens bloomed. To express their gratitude for these various reformatory efforts, the 
nobility and other principal inhabitants of Munich erected a handsome monument, with appropriate in- 
scriptions upon it, commemorative of his deeds, within the beautiful pleasure-grounds ha had given 
them. 



STEPHEN GIRARD. 271 



large fortune, and the title of Countess of Rumford.i After many vicissitudes in 
Europe, she returned to her native land, and died at Concord, on the 2d of 
December, 1852, at the age of seventy years.^ The death of Count Rumford, 
says Professor Renwick, deprived " mankind of one of its eminent benefactors, 
and science of one of its brightest ornaments." 



STEPHEN aiRAKD. 

IT is honorable to be wealthy, when wealth is honorably acquired, and when 
it is used for laudable or noble purposes. One of the most eminent possess- 
ors of great riches, among the comparatively few in this country, was Stephen 
Girard of Philadelphia, where the memory of his opulence is perpetuated by a 
college bearing his name. He was a native of France, and was born near Bor- 
deaux, on the 24th of May, 1750. He was the child of a peasant, and the only 
school in which he was educated was the great world of active life. When 
about eleven years of age he left his native country, and sailed as a cabin-boy 
for the West Indies. He afterward went to New York, and spent several years 
in voyages between that port and the West Indies and New Orleans, as cabin- 
boy, seaman, mate, and finally as master. Having saved some money, he opened 
a small shop in Philadelphia, in 1769, and the next year he married the beautiful 
daughter of a caulker. His own asperity of temper made their connubial life un- 
happy. She became insane, in 1790, and died in the Philadelphia hospital, in 
1815, leaving no children. 

After his marriage, Girard occasionally sailed to the West Indies, as master 
of his own vessel. On one occasion he was captured, and, after awhile, returned 
home poor. After the war of the Revolution, he and his brother carried on a 
profitable trade with St. Domingo; and on their dissolution of partnership, 
Stephen continued the business on his own account. While two of his vessels 
were there, in 1804, the great revolt of the negroes, which resulted in the mas- 
sacre of the white people, took place. Many planters who sent their valuables 
on board his vessels never lived to claim them, for whole families were destroyed. 
A large sum of money was thus placed in his possession and never called for. 
He afterward engaged extensively and successfully in the East India trade ; and, 
in 1812, he opened his own private bank, in Philadelphia, with a capital of one 
million two hundred thousand dollars. When the new United States Bank was 
started, in 1816, he subscribed for stock to the amount of over three millions of 



1. In addition to ample provisions for his mother, Cosnt Rumford gave the American Academy of 
Arts and Sciences five thousand dollars, in 1796, and also very liberally endowed a professorship in Har- 
vard University. The Rumford Professorship in that institution was established in 1816. 

2. Th3 residence of Miss Sarah Thompson, Countess of Rumford, was a beautiful villa on the banks 
of the Merrimac, south of the village of Concord. A gentleman of the highest respectability, who was 
intimately acquainted with that lady, informs me that it was her firm belief that her father did not die in 
France, as is supposed. She related that on hearing of the death of her father, she repaired to Auteuil, 
but the servants could not show his grave, and their conduct appeared mysterious. She afterward went 
to England, and lived in a house that belonged to her father, at Brompton, and which was bequeathed 
to her in his Will. An adjoining landholder soon afterward claimed the property, and took legal steps 
to eject her. Without solicitation on her part, one of the most distinguished lawyers in London espoused 
her cause, secured a verdict in her favor, and refused any compensation. Fourteen years after the re- 
ported death of her father, the Countess, while repairing her house, was looking out of a window upon a 
neighboring dwelling, when she plainly mw the Count at a window. He immediately stepped biick, out 
of sight. When she recovered from her surprise, she rushed to the street, and hastened toward the house 
where she saw her father. At that moment he Ktepped into a coach, and she never saw him afierward. 
The Countess fully believed that he had probably become entangled in some political coil in France, 
found it necessary to retire from the world, had his death reported, and live 1 inroffm'to in TiOndon, and 
sometimes at Brompton. She believed that he had kept a vigilant eye over her welfare, and that he 
employed and paid the eminent London barrister, who managed her suit at Brompton. She died m the 
belief that her father was yet alive, in 1828, when she so distmctly saw him at Brompton. 



272 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 

dollars, which immensely augmented in value. The capital of his own bank 
finally reached four millions of dollars. In 'all his pecuniary transactions, Mr. 
Girard was successful, if accumulation is the test of success. He left behind a 
fortune of about nine millions of dollars, a very small portion of which was be- 
queathed to his relatives. Few of them received more than ten thousand dollars 
e;ich, except a flivorito niece, to whom he gave sixty thousand dollars. The 
city of Philadelphia, in trust, was his chief legatee. Ho left two millions of 
dollars, "or more if necessary," to build and endow a college for the educatioi/ 
and maintenance of "poor male orphan children," to be "received between the 
ages of six and ten, and to bo bound out between the ages of fourteen and 
eighteen, to suitable occupations, as those of agriculture, navigation, arts, me- 
chanical trades, and manufactures."' Mr. Girard died in Philadelphia, of influ- 
enza, on the 26th of December, 1831, in the eighty-second year of his age. 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 

BARON CUVIER, the great naturalist, paid a just tribute of praise to Audu- 
bon's work. The Birds of America, when he said, "It is the most gigantic 
and most magnificent monument that has ever been erected to Nature." Tho 
man who reared it possessed genius of the highest order, and his name and deeds 
will be remembered as long as the Bird of Washington soars in the '•firmament, 
or the swallow twitters in the barn. 

John James Audubon was born in New Orleans, on the 4th of May, 1780, of 
French parents in opulent circumstances. From infantile years he was ever 
delighted with the song and plumage of birds ; and his educated fother fostered 
that taste which afterward led him to fame, by describing the habits of the ten- 
ants of the woods, and explaining the peculiarities of different species. At tho 
age of fifteen years young Audubon was sent to Paris to complete his education. 
There he enjoyed instruction in art, for two years, under the celebrated David, 
When about eighteen years of age he returned to America, and soon afterward 
his father gave him a fjirm on the banks of the Schuylkill, at the mouth of Per- 
kioming creek, not far from Philadelphia. His time was chiefly spent in forest 
roamings, with his gun and drawing materials. The study of birds had become 
a passion, and the endearments of a home, presided over by a young wife, could 
not keep him from the woods, whither lie went at early dawn, and returned 
wet with the evening dews. 

In 1809, Mr. Audubon went to Louisville, Kentucky, to reside, where he re- 
mained about two years in a mercantile connection, but spending most of his time 
in the woods. There, in March, 1810, he first saw Wilson, the great ornithologist.^ 
A few months afterward he moved further up the Ohio to the verge of the wil- 
derness, and then commenced in earnest that nomadic life in the prosecution of 
his great study, which marked him as a true hero. With gun, knapsack, and 
drawing materials, he traversed the dark forests and pestiferous fens, sleeping 

1. Mr. Girard has been much censured because he directed, in his Will, "that no ecclesiastic, mis- 
sionary, or minister, of any sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercis^e any station or duty whaleyer in 
said college; nor shall any such person ever be admitted, for any purpose, or as a visi'.or, wiihin the 
premises appropriated to the purpose of said college." Mr. Girard immediately explained, by averiing 
that he " did not mean to cast any reflection upon any sect or person whatever." In view of the clash- 
ing doctrines of various sects, he desired " to keep the tender minds of the orphans" free fioni those ex- 
citements. He renuired the instructors to teach the purest morality, in all its forms, and summed up his 
object by saying that he wished the pupils, when they left the coUese, to adopt " at the same lime, sucb 
religious tenets as their matured reason may enable them to prefer." 

2. See sketch of WilsoE. 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



'Zli 




beneath the broad canopy of heaven, procuring food with his rifle, and cooking 
it when hunger demanded appeasement, and undergoing, day after day, the 
greatest fatigues and privations. For montlis and years he thus wandered, from 
the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the rocky coasts of Labrador, studying nnd 
preserving, with no other motive than the gratification of a great controhing 
passion. It was not until after an interview with Charles Lucien Bonaparte, the 
eminent ornithologist, in 1824, that Audubon experienced a desire for fame, and 
thought of publishing the results of his labors. Thus far his mature life had 
been devoted to the worship of Nature in one of its most beautiful and interest- 
ing forms, and the devotee was entirely lost to himself in the excess of his emo- 
tions. Now a new world opened before him. He made anofclier tour of eighteen 
months' duration; and, in 182G, ho sailed for England to make arrangements for 
publishing some of his drawings and descriptive notices. The portraits of birds 
were of life size, and their exhibition produced a great sensation among artists 
and literary men, in Great Britain. Ho was received with enthusiasm, especially 
at Edinburgh, where true genius has always been appreciated, and there ho 
made an arrangement for the engraving of his pictures. Subscriptions to his 
work, amounting to about eighty thousand dollars, were speedily obtained, and 

J8 



274 HENRY KNOX. 



Audubon personally superintended the engravings. He was most cordially re- 
ceived in Paris, in 1829; and the followii^ year he was again traversing the 
wilds of his native country. Toward the close of 1830, the first volume of his 
great work was issued. The monarchs of France and England headed his subscrip- 
tion list. The second volume appeared in 1 834, and within the next three years, 
the work was completed in four magnificent volumes, containing over a thousand 
figures. In 1839, Mr. Audubon made his residence on the banks of the Hudson, 
near the city of New York, and there his family have ever since resided. In 
1844, he completed and published his great work, in seven imperial octavo 
volumes, the engravings having been carefully reduced. 

Not contented with the accomplishment of such a vast undertaking, Mr. Au- 
dubon, at the age of sixty-five years, again went to the fields, forests, swamps, 
and mountains, with his two sons, to explore another department of natural 
history. After immense toil and continual hardships, he returned full freighted 
with drawings and descriptions oi^ The Quadrupeds of America, equal, in every 
respect, to those of his other work. Tlicse were published under his immediate 
supervision, and with the completion of that work his great labors ceased. He 
lived in repose at his residence near Fort Washington, until the 27th of January 
1851, when, at the age of seventy-one years, he went to his final rest. Then a 
briUiant star went out from the firmament of genius. 



HENKY KNOX. 

THE founder and chief of the artilleiy service in the Continental army was 
Henry Knox, a young bookseller in Boston (his native city), when the Wf " 
for Independence was kindled at Lexington and Concord. He was born on the 
25th of July, 1750, and while a mere youth, his feelings were zealously enlisted 
in favor of popular freedom, by the political discussions elicited b}^ the Stamp 
Act and succeeding parliamentary measures. He was known and marked as a 
rebel at the time of the tea-riot ; and when Lucy, the accomplished daughter of 
Thomas Flucker, secretary of tlie province, gave him lier heart and hand, her 
friends regarded her as a ruined girl. How difierent the result from the antici- 
pation ! Some of these, who adhered to the royal cause, and were afterward 
broken in fortune, thought it an honor to enjoy the friendship of Lucy Knox, 
who, during the time of the first presidency, stood in the front rank of social 
position. 

After the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, young Knox escaped from 
Boston, accompanied by his wife, who carried his sword concealed in her petti- 
coat. He entered the army at Cambridge, fought gallantly as a volunteer at 
the battle of Bunker Hill, then entered the engineer service with the commission 
of lieutenant-colonel, and superseded Gridley as commander. In the Autumn 
of 1775, he was directed, at his own suggestion, to organize an artillery corps; 
and the army at Boston being without heavy guns, ho was sent, in November, 
to transport thither the cannons and ammunition from the captured fortresses of 
Ticonderoga and Crown Point. After great fatigue and hardships, he arrived at 
Cambridge, at the close of the year, with forty-two sled loads of munitions of 
war.' These were used effectively, a few weeks later, in driving the British 
from Boston. In December, 1776, Congress resolved to " appoint a brigadier- 

1. These consisted of eight brass and six iron mortars, two iron howitzers, thirteen brass and twenty, 
six iron cannons, twenty-three hundred pounds of lead, and one barrel of liints. 



LOTT GARY. 275 



general of artillery," and Colonel Knox received the commission. From that 
time until the final great action at Yorktown, in 1781, General Knox was in 
constant and efficient service, and most of the time unaer the immediate com- 
mand of Washington. He was always influential in council and active in duty. 

After the capture of Cornwallis, Knox was promoted to major-general, and 
remained in service until the close of the war. He was in command of the rem- 
nant of the Continental army which marched into and took possession of the 
city of New York, when the British evacuated it in November, 1783, He suc- 
ceeded General Lincoln as Secretary of War under the old Confederation ; and 
on the organization of tlie new government, in 1789, President Washington 
called him to the same office, in his cabinet. He resigned that office in 1794. 
On the organization of a provisional army, in 1798, to repel expected French 
invasion. General Knox was appointed to a command, but he was never called 
from his retirement at Thomaston, Maine, to the field of military duty. There 
he lived in dignified repose after a successful and honorable career, until thf' 
Autumn of 1806, when, on the 25th of October, he died suddenly, in the fifty- 
seventh year of his age. His death was caused by the lodgment of a chicken 
bone in his throat, while at dinner. 

To the benevolent and patriotic emotions of General Knox is due the immortal 
honor of having suggested that truly noble institution, the Society of the Cincin- 
nati} 



LOTT GARY. 

" \rOT many wise men, after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are 
IM called " to the great work of human redemption, spiritual and social. 
The authors of great reforms, the real founders of kingdoms, the great benefactors 
of mankind, have generally been men who were nurtured and reared among the 
warm sympathies of the common people, and their origin, like that of Lett Carj^, 
has often been in the most profound depths of obscurity. That faithful servant 
of God and of his own people, was of African descent, and born a slave, near 
Charles City Court-house, in Virginia, on the plantation of William Christian. 
In 1804, he was hired out as a common laborer in the city of Richmond, where 
ho became intemperate, and was very profane. Three years afterward deep 
religious impressions changed his habits and thoughts, and he became a member 
of the Baptist Church. Ho could not read, but, procuring a New Testament, 
and applying himself faithfully, he acquired a knowledge of the alphabet and 
words, and finally succeeded in learning to both read and write. His industry 
and fidelity in a tobacco factory, enabled him, with a little friendly aid, to pur- 
chase himself and two half-orphan children, in 1813, for eight hundred and fifty 
dollars. Ho soon became an itinerant preacher on the plantations in the vicinity 
of Richmond, and labored with the most earnest zeal for the spiritual good of 
his race. In 1821, the American Colonization Society sent its first band of 
emigrants to Africa, and Lett Cary volunteered to leave a salary of several 
hundred dollars a year, to accompany those people to a field where he felt that 
he might be of vast service to his benighted nation. He participated in all the 
hardships and dangers of that little colony, yet he persevered, and became one 

1. This was an association composed of the officers of the Continental array, organized for the pur- 
poses of mutual friendship and mutual relief. Altl)oug:h everyone of Ihc original members are gone 
down into the grave, the Sociely continues, because the membership is hereditary. The eldest male 
descendant of the original member is entitled to the privileges of membership. There was a (rcne; al 
Society, and auxiliary State Societies. Washington was (he first president of the General Society, and 
Knox was the tirst secretary. There are several State oocietiej in existence. 



276 DANIEL WEBSTER. 



of the founders of the now flourishing republic of Liberia, on the western coast 
of Africa. ' He became health-inspector and pkysician of the colony, having re- 
ceived some instruction in the healing art, from Dr. Ayres ; and, in 1824, he had 
more than a hundred patients. As early as 1815, he assisted in forming an 
African Missionary Society, in Richmond; and in Africa he performed its worlv 
as well as he could. Through his agency, a school was established about seventy 
miles from Monrovia. In September, 1826, he was appointed vice-agent of the 
colony; and when, in 1828, Mr. Ashmun, the agent (f the Society, was com- 
pelled to withdraw on account of ill-health, he cheerfully and confidently left 
the entire control of affairs in Mr. Gary's hands. He managed well, as chief of 
a colony of twelve hundred freemen, for about six months, when, on account of 
a difficulty with the natives, he prepared for a military expedition against them. 
While making cartridges, an explosion took place, which killed the venerated 
Gary and seven others, on the 8th of November, 1828. His death was a great 
loss to the colony and to the cause of the gospel triumphs in dark Africa. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 

AS early as 1813, during the first months of his long membership in the National 
Legislature, the speeches of Daniel Webster marked him as a peerless man, 
and drew from a Southern member the expression, " The North has not his 
equal, nor the South his superior." That high preeminence in statesmanship he 
hold until his death. 

Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, on the 18th of Jan- 
uary, 1782, and was descended from the hardy yeomanry of New England. His 
father was a thrifty farmer, and ho taught all of his sons to labor industriously 
with their hands. As Daniel emerged from childhood to youth, and his phys- 
ical frame became strong and hardy, he labored in the fields during the Summer, 
and attended a district school, two miles from his home, in the Winter.2 The 
remarkable tenacity of his memory was exhibited at a very eji.rly age, and at 
fourteen ho could repeat several entire volumes of poetry. At about that time 
he entered the Phillips Academy, at Exeter,^ New Hampshire, then under the 
charge of Dr. Abbott. After studying the classics, for awhile, under Dr. Woods, 
of Boscawen, New Hampshire, he entered Dartmouth College, at Hanover,'' at 
the age of fifteen years. There he pursued his studies with industry and ear- 
nestness, yet with no special promises of future greatness. Ho was graduated 
with high honor, chose law as a profession, and completed a course of legal 
studies under Christopher Gore, of Boston, afterward governor of Massachusetts, 
He was admitted to the Suffolk bar, in 1805, but preferring the countr}^, he first 
established himself at Boscawen, and afterward at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 
He made his residence at the latter place, in 1807, and that year he was admitted 
to practice in the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. There he became noted 

1. He said in alerter, ia 1823, af.er ho hal been in several battles with the hostile natlye , " T er^ 
never has been a minute, no, not when the balls were dying around my head, when I could wish myself 
again in America." 

2. The teacher at that time was Benjamin Tappan, a native of East Kingston, New Hampshi'c, where 
hi was born in 1767. He was educatcrl at tha Exeter Academy, and at the solicitatio:i of Webster's 
father, went to Salisbury, and took charge of tho district school. Master Tappan survived his distin- 
guished pupil a few months. He died on the 9th of February, 1853, at the age of almost eighty -six 
years. 

^. There are two academies bearing the same name — one at Exeter, founded by Honorable John 
Phillips ; the other at Andover, Massachusetts, founded by Honorable Samuel Phillips. 
4. See sketch of Eleazer Wheelock. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



277 




S^^^ ^^Z^ 



as one of the soundest lawyers in the State ; and during his nine years' residence 
in Portsmouth, he made constitutional law a special study. 

Mr. Webster first appeared in public life, in 1813, when he took his seat in 
the House of Representatives at Washington, at the extra session of the thir- 
teenth Congress. It was a most propitious moment for a mind like Webster's 
to grapple with the questions of State policy, for those of the gravest character 
were to be then discussed. It was soon after war was declared against Great 
Britain, and the two great political parties, Federalists and Republicans, were 
violently opposed. Henry Clay was Speaker of the Lower House, and he im- 
mediately placed the newmemberuponthe very important Committee on Foreign 
Affairs. He made his first speech on the 11th of June, 1813, which at once 
raised him to the front rank as a debater. His series of speeches, at that time, 
took the country by surprise, and he became the acknowledged leader of the 
Federal party in New England, in and out of Congress. He was reelected to a 
seat in the House of Representatives, in 1814, by a large majority. At the close 
of the term he resumed the practice of his profession; and, in 1816, he removed 
to Boston, because it affbrded a wider field for his expanding legal business. In 
1817, he retired from Congress, and the following year he was employed in the 
great Dartmouth College case, in which difficult constitutional questions were 
involved. His efforts in that trial placed him at the head of constitutional law- 
yers in New England, a position which he always held. 



278 GEORGE WYTHE. 



In 1821, Mr. Webster assisted in the revision of the Constitution of Massa- 
chusetts, and he was elected a representative of Boston, in Congress, the follow- 
ing year. An almost unanimous vote reelected him, in 1824. He was chosen 
United States Senator, in 1826, but did not take his seat until the Autumn of 
1828, on account of severe domestic affliction. In tliat body he held a front 
rank for twelve consecutive years. Probably the greatest contest in eloquence, 
logic, and statesmanship, ever exhibited in the Senate of the United States, was 
that between Webster and Hayne, of South Carolina, iu 1830. Mr. Webster 
supported President Jackson against the nullifiers of the South, in 1832 ; but the 
fiscal policy of Jackson and Van Buren was always opposed by him. In 1839, 
he made a brief tour through portions of Great Britain and France, and returned 
in time to take an active part in the election canvass which resulted in the 
phoice of General Harrison for chief magistrate of the Republic. The new pres- 
ident made Mr. Webster his Secretary of State, and ho was retained in the 
cabinet of President Tyler. In 1842, he negotiated the important treaty con- 
cerning the north-eastern boundary of the United States, known as the Ashbur- 
ton treaty. In May, the following year, Mr. Webster retired to private life, but 
Jiis constituents would not suffer him to enjoy coveted repose. He was again 
sent to the Senate of the United States, in 1845, where he opposed the war with 
Mexico, but sustained the administration after hostilities had commenced, by 
voting supplies. In 1850, he offended many of his northern friends by his course 
in ftvor of the Compromise Act, m which the Fugitive Slave law was embodied. 
On the death of President Taylor, Mr. Fillmore, his successor, called Mr. Web- 
ster to his cabinet as Secretary of State, and lie held that responsible office, un- 
til his death, which occurred at the mansion on his fine estate at Marshfield, on 
the 24th of October, 1852, when at the age of almost seventy-one years. 



GEORGE WYTHE. 

IT is often a great misfortune for a young man to be master of wealth, actual 
or in expectation, at the moment of reaching his majority, for it too fre- 
quently causes noble resolves, aspiring energies, and rugged will, born of the 
necessity for effort, to die within him, and his manhood becomes dwarfed by 
idleness or dissipation. Such was the dangerous position in which George 
Wythe, one of Virghiia's most distinguished sons, found himself, at the age of 
twenty years. He w^as born in Elizabeth county, in 1726, of wealthy parents, 
and received an excellent education. His f ither died while the son was a child, 
and his training devolved upon his accomplished mother. Promises of great 
moral and intellectual excellences appeared when his youth gave jilace to young 
manhood, but at that moment his mother died, and he was left master of a largo 
fortune, and his own actions. He embarked at once upon the dangerous sea of 
unlawful pleasure, and for ten years of the morning of life, he had no higher 
aspirations than personal gratification. Then, at the age of thirty years, he was 
suddenly reformed. He forsook unprofitable companions, turned to books, became 
a close student, prepared himself for the practice of the law, and, in 1757, was 
admitted to the bar. Genius at once beamed out in all his efforts, and he arose 
rapidly to eminence in his profession. Honor was an every-day virtue with him, 
and ho was never engaged in an unrighteous cause. 

For several years preceding the Revolution, Mr. Wythe was a member of the 
Virginia House of Burgesses ; and during the Stamp Act excitement he stood 
shoulder to shoulder with Henry, Lee, Randolph, and other Republicans. He 



LACHLIN M'INTOSH. 279 



was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, in 1*7 7 5, and the following 
year he affixed his signature, in confirmation of his vote, to the Declaration of 
Independence. During the Autumn of that year, he was associated with Thomas 
Jefferson and Edmund Randolph, in codifying the laws of Virginia, to make 
them conformable to the newly-organized republican government. The fol- 
lowing year he was Speaker of the Virginia Assembly; and he was appointed 
the first high chancellor of the State, when the new judiciary was organized. 
That office he held during the remainder of his life, a period of more than twenty 
years. 

Chancellor Wythe was Professor of Law in William and Mary College, for 
awliile, and was the legal instructor of Presidents Madison and Monroe, and 
Chief Justice Marshall. He was a member of the convention, in 1786, out of 
which grew that of 1787, in which was formed the Federal Constitution; and in 
the Virginia State Convention that ratified it, he was its advocate. Under that 
instrument he was twice chosen United States Senator. Notwithstanding his 
public duties were multifarious and arduous, he taught a private school, for a 
long time, where instruction was free to those who chose to attend. A negro 
boy belonging to him having exhibited fine mental powers, he taught him Latin, 
and was preparing to give him a thorough classical education, when both the 
chancellor and the boy died, after partaking of some food in which poison had 
evidently been introduced. A near relative, accused of the crime, was tried and 
acquitted. Cliancellor Wythe died on the 8th of June, 1800, in the eighty-first 
year of his age. 



LACHLIN M'INTOSH. 

THE compliment of being "the handsomest man in Georgia," at the commence- 
ment of the Revolution, was bestowed upon Lachlin M'Intosh, a native of 
Scotland. He was born near Inverness, in 1727, and was a son of the head of 
the Borlam branch of the clan M'Intosh, who, when Lachlin was nine years of 
age, came to America with General Oglethorpe. He accompanied that gentle- 
man in an expedition against the Spaniards, in Florida, was made prisoner and 
sent to St. Augustine, where he died; and Lachlin, at the age of thirteen years, 
was left to the care of an excellent mother. The newly-settled province afforded 
small means for acquiring an education, and Mrs. M'Intosh was unable to send 
her son to Scotland, for the purpose. His naturally strong m.ind, excited by a 
love for knowledge, overcame, as usual, all difficulties. Just as he approached 
manhood, he went to Charleston, where his fine personal appearance, and the 
remembrance of his father's military services in Georgia, procured him many 
warm friends. Among these Avas the noble John Laurens, and he entered that 
gentleman's counting-room as under clerk. Disliking the inaction of commercial 
life within doors, he left the business, returned to his paternal estate and the 
bosom of his family, on the Alatamaha, married a charming girl from his native 
country, and commenced the business of a land-surveyor. Success attended his 
efforts ; and, inheriting the military taste of his father, he made himself fa- 
miliar with military tactics, and thus was prepared for the part he was called 
upon to act in the War for Independence. He was a leading patriot in his sec- 
tion of Georgia; and when the war broke out, he entered the army, received 
the commission of colonel, and was exceedingly active in the early military 
movements in that extreme Southern State. He was commissioned a brigadier, 
in 1776, and a rivalry between himself and Button Gwinnett, one of the signers 



280 ROBERT Y. HAYNE. 



of the Declaration of Iiidepeudence,resulted in a fierce quarrel, which ended 
in a duel. The challenge was given by Ghwinnett. Both were wounded; 
Gwinnett mortally. M'intosli was tried for murder, and acquitted; but the 
trouble did not end there. The feud spread among the respective friends of 
the parties.aud, at one time, threatened serious consequences to the Repub- 
lican cause at the South. To allay the bitter feeling,M*Intosh patriotically 
consented to accept a station at the ISorth, and Washington appointed him 
commander-in-chief in the Western department, with his headquarters at 
Pittsburg. 

Early in 1778, General M'Intosh descended the Ohio with a considerable 
force, erected a fort thirty miles below Pittsburg, and after considerable 
delay, he marched toward the Sandusky towns in the interior of Ohio, to 
chastise the hostile Indians. The expedition accomplished but little, except 
tlie building of another fort near the present village of Bolivia, which M'ln- 
losh named Laurens, in honor of his old employer, then president of Con- 
uress. He returned to Georgia, in 1779, and was second in conmiand to 
Lincoln at the seige of Savannah, in October of that year. He remained 
witii Lincoln during the following winter and spring, and was made a pris- 
oner with the rest of the Southern army, on the surrender of Charleston, in 
May, 1780. After his release, he went,"^ with his family to Virginia, where 
he 'remained until the close of the war. Then he returned to Georgia, a 
l)Oor man, for his little estate was almost wiisted. He lived in retirement 
and comparative poverty, in Savannah, until 1806, when he died, at the age 
of seventy-nine years. 

KOBEET Y. HAYNE. 

THE names of Daniel Webster and Robert Y. Hay ne, will ever be asso- 
ciated in the legislative annals of the Republic. because their great de- 
bate in the United States Senate, in 1830, was one of the most remarkable 
for logic and eloquence which ever occurred in that body. Hayne was more 
than nine years the junior of his powerful New England antagonist, liav- 
ing been born on the lOih of November, 1791, near Charleston. South Car- 
olina. His education was obtained at a granmiar-school in Charleston, and 
at the age of seventeen years he commenced the study of law under the 
direction of the since eminent jurist and statesman, Langdon Cheves. He 
liad not yet reached his majority,when the clouds of impending war be- 
tween the United States and Great Britain gathered darkly. Having se- 
cured his admission to the bar, he volunteered liis services, early in 1812, 
for the military defense of the seaboard, and entered the iirmy as lieuten- 
ant. He rose rapidlv to the rank of major-general of his State militia,and 
was considered one of the best disciplinarians in the South. On receiving 
an honorable discharge. General Hayne retired to Charleston, and com- 
menced the practice of law as a means of procuring a livelihood. At about 
that time, Mr. Cheves had accepted a seat in Congress,and Mr. Hayne had 
the advantage of securing much of his practice. Before he was twenty- 
two years of age his business was very extensive: and from that time \m- 
til his death, his practice was probably greater and more lucrative than that 
of any lawyer in South Carolina. 

Mr. Havne first appeared as a legislator, in 1814, when he was elected to 
the SoutirCarolina Assembly. There he was distinguished for his eloquence, i 
and his firm support of President Madison's administration, in i ts war 

1. Mr. Hayiic's first efiort at oratory was an oration on the, 4th of July, 1S12, at Bort Moultrie, which 
won for hiiu great applause, and gave promise of Ids future brilliancy as a public speaker, li is worthy 



ROBEET Y. HAYNE. 



281 




measures. In 1818, lie was chosen Speaker of the Assembly; and the same 
year he received the appointment of attorney-general for the State. In every 
duty to which he was called, young Ilayne acquitted himself nobly; and tlie 
moment he had reached an eligible age, he was elected to a seat in the Senate 
of the United States, where, for ten years, he represented South Carolina with 
rare ability. Ho was an ever-vigilant watchman upon the citadel of State Eights, 
and as a member of the flimous "Union and State Eights Convention," held 
toward the close of 1832, he was chairman of the committee of twenty-one who 
reported the "ordinance of nullification," which alarmed the country, and called 
forth President Jackson's puissant proclamation. Like his great coadjutor, Mr. 
Calhoun, General Hayne was sincere and honest in the support of his views, and 
always commanded the highest respect of his political opponents. 

About a fortnight after the adoption of the celebrated " ordinance," General 
TTayne was chosen governor of the State, and a few days after President Jack- 
son's proclamiation reached him, he issued a counter-manifesto, full of defiance. 
Civil war seemed inevitable, but the compromise measures proposed by Mr. 
Clay, and adopted by Congress early in 1833, averted the menaced evil. Gov- 
ernor Hayuc filled the executive chair, with great energy, until 1834; and, oa 



of remark, that his election to the Soutli Carolina Assembly, at the head of thirty-one candidates, by a 
larger vote than any individual hail ever received, in a contested election, in Charleston, was an evidence 
of nis great popularity. He was then not twenty -three years of age. 



282 RALPH IZARD. 

retiring from that exalted office, he was elected mayor of Charleston. His at- 
tention was now specially turned to the great subject of internal improvements; 
and, in 1837, he was elected president of the " Charleston, Louisville, and Cincin- 
nati Rail Road Company." Ho held that office until his death, which occurred 
at Ashville, North Carolina, on the 24th of September, 1841, when in the fiftieth 
year of his age. Governor Hayne may bo ranked among the purest-minded men 
of his age. 



KALPH IZAKD. 

IN" the year 1 844, a daughter of Ralph Izard, one of the noblest of the sons of 
South Carolina, published a brief memoir of him, attached to a volume of 
his correspoudence, and accompanied by a portrait, under which is the appropri- 
ate motto, '• An honest man's the noblest work of God." Ralph Izard was en- 
titled to that motto, for few men have passed the ordeal of public life with more 
honor and purity than he. He was born in 1742, at the family-estate called 
The Elms, about seventeen miles from Charleston, South Carolina, and at a very 
early age was sent to England to be educated. He pursued preparatory studies 
at Hackney, and completed his education at Christ College, Cambridge. On 
arriving at " his majority, ho returned to America, took possession of his ample 
fortane left by his father, and, having no taste for the professions, he divided his 
time between literary and agricultural pursuits, and the pleasures of fashionable 
life. He passed much of his time, in early life, with James De Lancey, then 
lieutenant-governor of the province of New York, and married his niece, a 
daughter of Peter De Lancey, of Westchester county, in 1767. In 1771, they 
went to London, and occupied a pleasant house there, for some time, in the en- 
joyment of the best intellectual societ}^ of the metropolis. His ample fortune 
allowed the indulgence of a fine taste, and books, painting, and music, were his 
chief delight. Yet he possessed a thoroughly republican spirit, and refused 
offers to be presented to court, because etiquette would compel him to bow the 
knee to the king and queen. He watched the course of political events with 
great interest; and finally, in 1774, the excitement in London on the subject of 
American affairs so troubled him, that he went to the Continent with his wife, 
and travelled many months. But everywhere the apparition of his bleeding and 
beloved country followed him, and he resolved to return homo and engage in 
the impending conflicts. He returned to England, and there used all his efforts 
to enlighten the ministry concerning the temper of his countrymen, but to little 
purpose. 

War commenced, and, finding it difficult to return to America, he went to 
France, in 1777, when Congress appointed him commissioner to the Tuscan 
court. Circumstances prevented his presenting himself to the Duke of Tuscany, 
for a long time, and he asked permission of Congress to resign his commission 
and return home. In the meanwhile the false representations of Silas Deane 
had induced Congress to recal him. That body afterward made ample amends 
for the injustice. He remained in Paris until 1780, and in the meanwhile had 
served his country efficiently in many ways, officially and unofficially. On one 
occasion he pledged his whole estate as security for funds needed by Commodore 
Gillon, who had l3een sent from South Carolina to Europe, to purchase frigates. 
On his return to America, in 1780, Mr. Izard immediately repaired to the 
Kead-quarters of Washington, and was there when the treason of Arnold wa3 
discovered. It is evident from his correspondence that he was chiefly instru- 



BENJAMIN PIERCE. 283 



mental in procuring the appointment of General Greene to the command of the 
Southern army, toward the close of that year. For that service he received the 
thanks of the governor of South Carolina. Early in 1781, he was elected to a 
S3at in the Continental Congress, where he remained until peace was established. 
Then he Wiis joined by his flimily, whom he had left in France, and he retired 
to his estate to enjoy the repose of domestic life. His countrymen would not 
allow him to be inactive, and lie was chosen the first United States Senator from 
South Carolina, for the full term of six years, during which time he was a firm 
supporter of the administration of President Washington. In 1795, he took final 
leave of public life, and once more sougiit repose, with the pleasant anticipations 
of many years of earthly happiness. But two years afterward he was suddenly 
prostrated by paralysis. His intellect was mercifully spared, and he lived in 
comparative comfort until the 30th of May, 1804, when he expired, at the ago 
of sixty-two years. A tablet was placed to his memory in the parish church of 
St. James, Goose Creek, near his paternal seat — The Elms. 



BENJAMIN PIERCE. 

THE career of Benjamin Pierce, the father of the fourteenth President of the 
United States, affords a noble example of true manhood in private and 
public life, which tlie young men of our Republic ought to study and imitate. 
It is an example of perseverance in well-doing for self, friends, and country, 
being rewarded by a conscience void of offence, a long life, and the love and 
honor of fellow-men. In these lies hidden the priceless pearl of eartlily happi- 
ness. 

Benjamin Pierce was descended from ancestors who settled at Plymouth, 
Massachusetts, three years after the Pilgrim Fathers first landed on that snowy 
beach.' He was the seventh of ten children, and was born in Chelmsford, Mas- 
sachusetts, on Christmas day, 1757. Ho was left fatherless at the age of six 
years, and was placed under the guardianship of a paternal uncle. His oppor- 
tunities for education v/ere small, but the lad, possessing a naturally vigorous 
intellect, improved those opportunities with parsimonious assiduity. His body 
was invigora,ted by f n-m-labor ; and when, at the age of seventeen years, the 
first gun of the Revolution at Lexington echoed among the New England liills, 
and he armed for the battle-fields of freedom, young Pierce was fitted, morally 
and physically, for a soldier of truest stamp. He hastened to Lexington, pushed 
on to Cambridge, and six days after the retreat of the British troops from Con- 
cord, he was enrolled in Captain Ford's company as a regular soldier. He fought 
bravely on Breed's Hill seven weeks afterward ; was fliithful in camp and on 
guard until the British were driven from Boston, in the Spring of 1776; followed 
the fortunes of Washington during the ensuing campaigns of that year, and was 
orderly sergeant of his company, before he was twenty years of age, in the glo- 
rious conflicts which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga, in the 
Autumn of 1777. His valor there won for him the commission of ensign. The 
young man who bore that commission and the American flag, in the hottest of 
the fight, was killed. Young Pierce rushed forward, seized the banner, and 

1. The facts in this brief sketch of the life of Governor Pierce are gleaned from a well-written biog- 
raphy, from the pen of the Honorable C. E. Potter, editor of The Farmer's Monthly Visitor, published 
at Manchester, New Hampshire. It appears in the number for July, 1852, accompanied by an accurate 
portrait of Governor Pierce. 



284 BENJAMIN" PIERCE. 

bore it triumphantly to the American hnes, amid the shouts of his companions. 
He remained in service during the whole war, and reached the rank of captain. 
When the American troops entered the city of New York, in the Autumn of 
1783, Captain Pierce commanded the detachment sent to take possession of the 
military works at Brooklyn. This was the concluding act of his services in the 
Continental army, and a few weeks afterward he returned to Chelmsford, after 
an absence of almost nine years. 

The war left young Pierce as it found him, a true patriot, but penniless, for 
the Continental paper-money, in which he had been paid, had become worthless. 
Yet he was rich in the glorious experience of endurance under hardships ; and 
entering the service of a large landholder, it was not long before he owned a 
small tract of land in the southern part of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, where- 
on he built a log-hut, and commenced a clearing, in the Spring of 1786. He 
was unmarried, and lived alone. Labor sweetened his coarse food and deepened 
his slumbers. He cultivated social relations with the scattered population around 
him; and, in the Autumn of 1786, the governor of New Hampshire appointed 
him brigade-major of his district. In blooming May, the following year, he mar- 
ried. Fifteen months afterward death took his companion from him, and he was 
left with an infant daughter, the wife and widow of General John M'Neil. 
He ma' -led again in 1789, and the union continued almost tifty years. ^ At 
about ' AG same time he was elected to a seat in the New Hampshire legislature, 
and was j)romoted to the command of a regiment. When, in 1798, Congress 
authorized the raising of a provisional army, in expectation of war with Prance, 
Colonel Pierce was offered the same commission in the regular service, but he 
declined it. In 1803, he was elected to the council of his State, and retained 
that office by reelection until 1809, when he was appointed sheriff" of the county 
of Hillsborough. The governor had already commissioned him a brigadier- 
general of the militia, in. which position he acquitted himself with great dignity 
and honor. 

General Pierce held the office of sheriff" until 1813, when he was again made 
a member of the council. After five years' service there, he was again elected 
sheriff; and no man ever performed official duties in a manner more acceptable 
to the public than he. In 1827, he was chosen governor of New Hampshire; 
and, in 1829, he was again called to the same station. Three years afterward 
he held his last public office. It was in the Autumn of 1832, when he was 
chosen, by the democratic party, a presidential elector. When the duties of that 
office were ended, he sought repose upon his farm at Hillsborough, after having 
baen engaged in the public service almost continually for fifty-five years. A 
partial paralysis of the system prostrated him, in 1837, but he was not confined 
to his room until November, 1838. Prom that time he suffered intensely until 
mercifully relieved by death, on the 1st of April, 1839, in the eighty-second year 
of his age. 

We cannot too reverently cherish the remembrance of such men. Not one 
cf thejn are now on the shores of Time. 2 

"Oh! honored be each silvery hair! 
Each furrow trenched by toil and care\ 
And sacred each old bending form 
That braved oppression's battle storm." 

"i. J;-; second wife, mother of President Pierce, died in December, 1838, a few months before the depart- 
ure of her honored husband. 

2. It was estimated that at the close of 1854, not more than one thousand of the two hundred and thirty 
thousand of the Continental soldiers, and the fifty-six tbousnnd militia, who bore arms during the war, re- 
mained among us. The last survivors, Lemuel Cook and William Hutchings, died iu 1802. 



HARRIET NEWELL. 



285 




O.'V.n^CA^ / 6^.XA 



HARRIET NEWELL. 



TO bo a martyr in any causo requires the truest elements of heroism. To for* 
sake country, friends, and the enjoyments of ftiviUzation at the bidding of 
yj' emotion born of a great principle, to do good for others, is an act of heroism 
oi wtibli those whom the world delights to honor as its great heroes, have very 
little appreciation. But such is the heroism Avhich makes faithful Christian 
missionaries, moved by an emotion of highest benevolence to do good to tho 
souls and bodies of men. Of the "noble army of martyrs," she who was ever 
known in girlhood as "sweet little Hatty Atwood," became a bright example 
of faith and self-denial. She performed no important service on tho missionary 
field of action; indeed, she had barely entered upon its verge and heard tho cry 
of the heathen for help, when she was called to another sphere of life. But she 
was one of tho earliest, purest, most lovely of those who went from America to 
India, bearing to tho dark chambers of paganism there, the candle of the Lord 
God Omnipotent. Her example is her glory. 

Harriet Atwood was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, on tho 10th of October, 
1793. She was blessed with a sweet disposition, and was always a favorite 
with her playmates. Studious nnd thoughtful from early childhood, her mind 
was naturally imbued with an abiding sense of the good and the true, which 
form the basis of sound religious cliaracter. At the age of thirteen years, while 
at the academy in Bradford, Massachusetts, she became more deeply impressed 
with the importance of religious things, than ever. She withdrew from the com- 



286 ANTHONY AYAYNE. 



pany of frivolous persons, read religious books and her Bible Riuch of her leisure 
time; and, in 1809, when not yet sixteen years of age, she made an open pro- 
fession of Christianity. In the Winter of 1811, she became acquainted with ;Mr. 
Newell, her future husband. He was preparing for missionary service in India, 
and in April following, he asked her companionship as wife and co-worker in. 
the distant land to which he was going. The conflicts of that young spirit with 
the allurements of home, friends, and personal ease, was severe but short. She 
consented ; and, with the blessings of her Avidowed mother, she was married, in 
Tebruary, 1812, and the same mouth sailed with Mr. and Mrs. Judson, and others, 
for India. On account of hostilities then progressing between the United States 
and England, this little band of soldiers, under the banner of the Prince of 
Peace, were not permitted to remain at Calcutta, so they took their departure 
for the Isle of Prance, They reached it after a voj^agc of great peril, toward the 
close of Summer. A few weeks afterward Mrs. Newell gave birth to a daughter. 
The delicate flower was plucked from its equally delicate stem, by the Angel of 
Death, five days after it had expanded in the atmosphere of earth, and its spirit 
was exhaled as sweet incense to Heaven. The mother soon followed. Hered- 
itary consumption was the canker at the root of life, and on the 30th of Novem- 
ber, 1812, that lovely Christian's head was pillowed upon the bosom of mother 
earth. She was then only nineteen years of age. Her widowed mother, Avho 
wept over her at parting, lived on in humble resignation for more than forty 
years. She died in Boston, in July, 1853, at the ago of eighty-four years. 



ANTHONY WAYNE. 

THE fearless courage and desperate energy of General Anthony "Wayne ob- 
tained for him, among his countrymen, the title of "Mad Anthony;" and 
some of his exploits entitle him to the distinction. He was born in Easttown, 
Chester county, Pennsylvania, on the 1st of January, 1745. He was educated 
with considerable care, in Philadelphia, became proficient in mathematics, and 
commenced the business of surveying, in his native town, at the age of about 
eighteen years. Skill and popularity in his profession soon established his repu- 
tation permanently; and, in 1765, when only twenty years of age, he was sent 
by a company of gentlemen to locate lands for them in Nova Scotia. They made 
him superintendent of the settlement, but after remaining there about two years, 
he returned homo, married, and resumed his business of surveyor, in his natiA-e 
county. His talent attracted general attention; and, in 1773, he was elected to 
a seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly. He continued in that service until 1775, 
when he left the council for the field, having been appointed colonel in the 
Continental army. He accompanied General Thomas to Canada, in the Spring 
of 1776, and at the close of service there, he was promoted to brigadier. After 
a year of active service, he was engaged efficiently with the commander-in-chief 
in the battles at Brandy wine," Germantown, and Monmouth, in all of which his 
skill and valor were conspicuous. In 1779, he made a night attack upon the 
strong fortress at Stony Point, on the Hudson, and the entire garrison were made 
prisoners. It was one of the most brilliant achievements of the war, and Con- 
gress rewarded him with its thanks, and a gold medal. It made him the most 

1. While encamped near the Paoli tavern, in Chester county, Pennsylvania, affer the battle at Eran- 
dvwine. his command was attacked nt midnight, by a stiongforce of British and Hessians, under Gen 
oral Grey, and many of them were killed. Over the spot where they were buried, a neat marble monu- 
ment stands. See sketch of the Reverend David Jones. 



MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE. 287 

popular man in tlie army, below the commander-in-cliief, and his praises were 
spoken in every part of the land. 

In 1781, General Wayne proceeded, with the Pennsylvania line, to Virginia, 
and there cooperated with La Fayette and Baron Steuben against Arnold, the 
traitor, who had invaded that State. Wayne's retreat at Jamestown, when al- 
most surrounded by the British troops, was one of the most masterly perform- 
ances ever accomplished. In the siege of Yorktown, he performed many deeds 
of great valor, and after participating in the joy of the great victory there, he 
proceeded southward, to prosecute the war in Georgia. He kept the British 
witliin their lines at Savannah until they were compelled to evacuate the State, 
and then Wayne, in triumph, took possession of the capital. For his great 
services there, the legislature of Georgia made him a present of a valuable farm. 
On retiring from the army, he took up his abode in his native county. In 1788, 
he was a member of the Pennsylvania convention, called to consider the Federal 
Constitution, and was its earnest advocate. In 1792, he was appointed to suc- 
ceed St. Clair in the command of troops in the Ohio country, and after prosecut- 
ing war against the Indians, with great vigor, he gained a decided victory oyer 
them, in August, 1794. A year afterward he concluded a treaty of peace with 
the North-western tribes, at Greenville, and thus terminated the war. On his 
return home, he was seized with gout, and died in a hut at Presque Isle (now 
Erie, Pennsylvania), in December, 1796, at the age of lift\ -one years. According 
to his request, he was buried under the Hag-staff of the fort ca the shore of 
Lake Erie. In 1809, his son, Isaac, had his body removed to lladnor church- 
yard, Delaware county, Pennsylvania, and over it the Pennsylvaoia Society of 
the Cincinnati erected a handsome marble monument, with suitable inscriptions, 
the same year. 



I'/TARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE. 

THOSE cosmopolitan lovers of liberty, who came from Europe to assist the 
colonists in then* struggles for freedom and independence, are so identified 
with the founders of our Republic, that each deserves a noble cenotaph to his 
memory. In an especial manner ought Americans to reverence the name and 
deeds of La Fayette, who, tifty years after the contest in which he had aided us 
had closed, came to behold the glorious superstructure of free institutions 
which had been reared upon the consecrated foundation that he had helped to 
plant. 

Gilbert Mottier,' Marquis do La Fayette, was a native of France, where he 
was born on the 6th of September, 1757. He belonged to one of the most an- 
cient of the modern French nobility, and received an education compatible with 
his station. Wlien a little more than seventeen years of age he married the 
Countess de Noailles, daughter of the Due de Noailles, a beautiful young lady 
about his own age, and the possessor of an immense fortune. In the Summer 
of 1776, he was stationed, with the military corps to which he belonged, near 
the town of Mentz. He was an oflBcer in the French army, though only eighteen 
years of age. At a dinner-party, where the Duke of Gloucester, brother of the 
King of England, was the guest on the occasion, he heard of the strugg.es of 
the far-off American colonies, and their noble Declaration of Independence. He 
heard, with indignation, of the employment of German troops and other strong 

1. In the Biographie des Hmnmes his name is written Maria-Paul-Joseph-Roci^-Vves-Giibert-Mottiers 
de la Fayette. 



288 MAEQUIS DE LA FAYETTE. 

measures employed hy England to enslave that straggling people, and his young 
soul burned with a desire to aid them. He* left the army, returned to Paris, 
offered his services to the x^merican commissioners, fitted out a vessel at his own 
expense, and, with Baron de Kalb and other European officers, sailed for Amer- 
ica. They arrived at Georgetown, South Carolina, in April, 1777, and La Fayette 
hastened, by land, to Philadelphia. Congress, after some hesitation, accepted 
his services, and he entered the army under Washington, as a volunteer, but 
bearing the honorary title of major-general, conferred upon him by the national 
legislature, in July. His first battle was on the Brandywino, where ho was 
severely wounded in the knee, and was nursed, for some time, by the Moravian 
sisters at Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania. He was in the battle at Monmouth, the 
following Summer, and was active in Rhode Island. 

In October, 1778, La Fayette obtnined leave to return to France, and Congress 
ordered the American minister in Paris to present him an elegant sword, in tho 
name of the United States of America. There he remained until the Spring of 
1780, when he returned with the joyful intelligence of tho ourcoming of a French 
army and navy to assist the struggling colonists. He was in active and con- 
tinual service hero until th3 capture of Cornwallis and his army, at Yorktown, 
in the Autumn of 1781. In that achievement he performed a gallant part, as 
well as in tho events in Virginia, immediately preceding. Soon after the capit- 
ulation at Yorktown, he returned to France, and, by his own exertions, wasy 
raising a large army there for service in America, when intelligence of peac:» 
reached him. In 1784, he visited America, and was every where received with 
the greatest enthusiasm by his old companions-in-arms. With the blessing of c 
free people, he again returned to his native country, and from that time until 
the death of Washington, those two great men were in affectionate correspond- 
ence. 

La Fayette took an active part in the politics of France, when the great Revo- 
lution there approached. Ho was an active member of the Legislative Assem- 
bly, where, amidst the intense radicalism of tlie theoretical democrats, he was a 
fervent but conservative advocate of republicanism. Because of his moderation 
he was suspected, and he fled from France to avoid tho fate of many good men 
who lost their heads during the Reign of Terror. Ho did not entirely escape, 
but was seized and kept a prisoner in a dungeon at Olmutz, in Germany, during 
three years, where he endured great personal suffering. After his release, ho 
lived in comparative retirement with his devoted wife (on whom his misfortunes 
had fallen heavily) until 1814, when the first downfall of Napoleon, whom ho 
hated, brought lum again into public life. In 1815, he was a member of the 
Chamber of Deputies, and in that assembly ho offered the resolution for the ap- 
pointment of a committee to demand the abdication of the Emperor. He was 
again a member of the Chamber of Deputies, in 1818. Six years afterward ho 
was invited to visit the United States as the guest of tho nation; and, in 1824, 
the American frigate Brandywine (so named in his honor) conveyed him to our 
shores. His journey through tho different States was a continual ovation, and 
every where the surviving soldiers of the Revolution flocked to greet the " dear 
Marquis." In the Republican movements in France, in 1830, which dethroned 
Charles the Tenth, La Fayette took a conspicuous part, and, nobly refusing the 
chief magistracy of his nation, which tho people and tho legislature offered him, 
he indicated the head of Louis Philippe, of the Orleans family, as the proper ono 
fjr the French crown. Afterward that ungrateful monarch treated La Fayette 
with coldness and disdain. In 1834, that venerated patriot of two hemispheres 
went to his rest, at tho age of seventy-seven years. 



JOSEPH STORY. 



289 




JOSEPH S'TORY. 



" TITHATEVER subject he touched was touched with a master's hand and 
T T spirit. He employed his eloquence to adorn his learning, and his learn- 
ing to give solid weight to his eloquence. He was always instructive aud in- 
teresting, and rarely without producing an instantaneous conviction. A loftj 
ambition of excellence, that stirring spirit which breathes the breath of Heaven, 
aud pants for immortality, sustained his genius in its perilous course." These 
were the beautiful words of Judge Story when speaking of a noble companion 
in profession who had just passed from earth, and they may, with earnest truth, 
be applied to the now departed jurist himself. 

Joseph Story was born at Marblehead, Massachusetts, on the 18th of Septem- 
ber, 1779. He pursued academic studies under the Rev. Dr. Harris (afterward 
president of Columbia College, New York), and entered Harv^ard University, as 
a student, in 1795. He was graduated there in 1798, studied law, was admitted 
to the bar, in 1801, and made Salem his place of residence and professional prac- 
tice. His fine talent was speedily appreciated, and he soon possessed an exten- 
sive and lucrative practice. He was often opposed to the most eminent Iaw3"ers 
of the day, who were Federalists, he liaving become attached to the Democratic 
party at the commencement of his professional career. In 1805, he was chosen 
to represent Salem in the Massachusetts legislature, and was annually reelected 

lU 



290 CHARLES BPvOCKDEN BROWN. 

to that station until 1811, when he was appointed a judge of the Supremo Courc 
of the United States. In the meanwhile (1809-10) he had served a few months 
in the Federal Congress, as representative of the district in which he resided. 
During that brief congressional career, he was distinguished for his talent and 
energy, especially in his eftbrts to obtain a repeal of the famous Embargo Act. 
Mr. Jeflerson regarded Mr. Story as the chief instrument in procuring the repeal 
of that act, so obnoxious in its operations upon the commerce and manufacturea 
of New England.* 

Mr. Story was only thirty-two years of age when President Madison made 
liim an associate justice of the Supreme Court of tlie United States, and from that 
time he discarded party politics, and labored incessantly to become eminent!}' 
useful as a jurist. He was a worthy coadjutor of the illustrious Marshall, and in 
commercial and constitutional law he had no peer upon the bench of the Federal 
judiciary. In 1820, Judge Story was a member of the convention that revised 
the constitution of Massachusetts, and distinguished himself by eloquent ex- 
pressions of the most liberal sentiments. In 1829, Mr. Nathan Dane founded a 
Law School in connection with Harvard University, on the express condition 
that Judge Story should consent to become its first professor. The eminent 
jurist acquiesced, and became greatly interested in the important duties of in- 
struction to which his position called him. Indeed, he was so impressed with 
the importance of the labor, and so enamored with its pleasures, that he contem- 
plated a resignation of his seat on the bench in order that he might apply all his 
time and energies to the school. 

Judge Story wrote much and well. The most important of his productions 
are Commentaries on the Law of Bailments ; OoiriTnentaries on the Constitution of 
the United States^ three volumes, 1833; an abridgment of the same; Commen- 
taries on the Conflict of Laws, 1834; Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence, in 
two volumes; a treatise on i\\Q Science of Pleading in Courts of Equity, 1838; 
on the Law of Agency, 1839 ; on the Law of Partnership, 1841 ; on the Laio of 
Bills of Exchange, 1843; and on the Law of Promissory Notes, 1845, To the 
Encyclopaedia Americana, and the North Amei'ica Review, he contributed many 
valuable papers ; and ho delivered many addresses upon various important sub- 
jects. Judge Story died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 10th of September, 
1845, at the age of sixty-six years. 



HARLES BROCKDEN BROWN. 

A GENTLE spirit, full of angelic sweetness, passed from earth to heaven 
when that of Charles Brockden Brown put off its mortality. He was born 
of Quaker parents, in Philadelphia, on the l7th of January, 1771. His body 
was always frail, but his mind was vigorous and his soul ever hopeful. He was 
dearly loved in the home where he was nurtured, carefully tutored in the rudi- 
ments of education, and at the age of ten was placed under the charge of a 
teacher named Proud, whose instruction he enjoyed for five years. Young 
Brown was wonderfully precocious, and he made remarkable progress in the 
study of the Latin, Grreek, and French languages, and mathematics. Like Watts, 
his thoughts "came in numbers," and before he was fifteen years of age, he had 
fictually commenced three epic poems. Young Brown's friends wished him to 
be a lawyer, and he commenced legal studies. They were not congenial to his 

1. Mr. Story's course offended Mr. Jefferson, for the Embargo was one of the favorite measures of the 
President. He called Mr. Story a " pseudo-republican." 



BARON DE KALB. 291 



taste, and he resolved to devote his Hfe to Hterature. With youug men of cor- 
responding tastes he associated for mutual improvement in studying and in com- 
position. His health was feeble, and he made long pedestrian journeys into the 
country in quest of invigoration. But it came not. 

In 1793, young Brown visited an intimate friend in New York, where he 
formed the acquaintance of several literary young men. For some time he re- 
sided alternately in New York and Philadelphia, carefully preparing his mind 
to become a public writer. He chose the Novel as the best medium through 
which to convey his pecuhar views of humanity to the world; and, in 1798, 
when twenty-seven years of age, his Wieland appeared, and at once established 
liis reputation as an author of liighest rank. The following year he established 
a monthly magazine in New York; and, in 1800, he published three novels — 
Arthur Mervya, Ormond, and Edgar Huntley. Clara Howard was published in 
1801; and, in 1804, his last novel, entitled Jane Talbot, was first issued in Eng- 
land, and afterward in Pliiladelphia. That year he married the daughter of a 
Presbyterian clergyman,, in New York, and immediately removed to Philadelpliia, 
where he afterward assumed editorial control of The Literary Magazine and The 
American Regifiter. These were ably conducted by him until failing health com- 
pelled him to lay aside his pen, and, in tlie bosom of an aftectionate family, sur- 
rounded by dear friends, to prepare for death, which the unmistakable symptoms 
of consumption were heralding. Tliat disease was rapidly developed during 
1809, and in February, the following year, he expired. 



BARON DE KALBo 

FON the green in front of the Presbyterian Church in Camden, South Caro- 
lina, is a neat marble monument erected to the memory of one of the bravo 
foreigners who fought for liberty in America, and thereby gained the imperish- 
able dignity of citizenship, in spite of the conventional restrictions which impose 
the necessity of native birth or fealty oath, to make men such. That officer was 
Baron de Kalb, Knight of the Eoyal Order of Military Merit, and a native of 
Alsace, a German province ceded to France. He was educated in the art of 
war in the French army, and came to America, with La Fayette, in the Spring 
of 1777. He offered his services to the Continental Congress, and on the 15th 
of September following, that body commissioned him a major-general in the 
regular army. He had been in America before, having been sent hither, about 
1762, as a secret agent of the French government, to ascertain the state of the 
Anglo-American colonies. Although travelhng in disguise, he excited suspicion. 
On one occasion he was arrested, but was immediately released, as nothing 
justified his detention. It was through Do Kalb that La Fayette gained an in- 
troduction to the American commissioners in Paris, and, with the young marquis, 
the veteran soldier left the honors and emoluments of a brigadier in the French 
service, and joined the fortunes of a people in rebellion against one of the great 
powers of tlie earth. 

De Kalb was active in the events near Philadelphia during the Autumn pre- 
ceding the memorable Winter encampment at Valley Forge. The following 
year he was in command in New Jersey. While at Morristown, in the Spring 
of 1780, he was placed at the head of the Maryland line, and with these, and 
the Delaware Continental troops, he marched southward, in April, to reinforce 
General Lincoln, then besieged in Charleston, He was too late ; and General 



292 JOHN RANDOLPH. 



Gates being sent soon afterward to take command of the troops in the South, 
De Kalb became subordinate to tliat officer^ Gates reached De Kalb's camp, on 
the Deep river, at the close of July, 1780, and pressed forward to confront Corn- 
wallis, at Camden. Seven miles north of that village, the t^o armies unex- 
pectedly met, at midnight ; and in the severe battle which occurred the follow- 
ing morning [August 16], De Kalb was mortally wounded, and the Americans 
were utterly defeated and routed. He fell scarred with eleven wounds, while 
trying to rally the scattering Americans. He died at Camden, three days after- 
ward, was buried where his monument now stands, and an ornamental tree was 
planted at the head of his grave. The corner-stone of that monument was laid 
in 1825, by his friend and companion-in-arms, La Fayette. On the 14th of 
October, 1780, Congress ordered a monument to be erected to his memory in the 
city of Annapolis, Maryland, but that duty, hke justice to his widow and heirs, 
has been delayed until now.^ 



JO PIN llANDOLPLI. 

SEVENTH in descent from Pocahontas, the beloved daughter of the great 
Emperor of the Powhatans, was John Randolph, who usually made the 
suffix, " of Roanoke," to his name. He was the son of a respectable planter in 
Chesterfield county, three miles from Petersburg, Virginia, where he was born 
on the 2d of June, 1773. It was through his paternal grandmother, Jane Boil- 
ing, that the blood of Pocahontas was transmitted to him. He lost his father 
while he was an infant, and his mother afterward married Judge St. George 
Tucker. His health was always delicate, and until he entered the college at 
Princeton, after a residence in Bermuda for a year, his studies were irregular. 
His mother died in 1788, and then ho entered Columbia College, in the city of 
New York. There he remained until 1790, when he returned to Virginia, and 
completed his education in "William and Mary College. In 1793, he went to 
Philadelphia to study law with his uncle, Edmund Randolph, then attorney- 
general of the United States. He made but little progress in preparing for the 
profession, and never entered upon its practice. He delighted in the British 
classics, and read a great deal, but for some time after reaching his majority, he 
had no fixed intentions concerning a life-emploj^ment. 

Mr. Randolph's first appearance in public life was in 1799, when he was 
elected to a seat in Congress. He had already displayed great powers of elo- 
quence in the peculiar line of satire or denunciation, and just before his election, 
he was brought into antagonism with Patrick Henry, on the subject of the Alien 
and Sedition laws. When he commenced a reply to a speech by Henry, a gen- 
tleman remarked, "Come, colonel, let us go — it is not worth while to listen to 
that boy." "Stay, m.y friend," replied Henry, "there 's an old man's head on 
that boy's shoulders." Congress was a field particularly suited to liis capacities, 
and for thirty years (with the exception of three intervals of two years each), he 
was a member of the House of Representatives. During that time he was a 
representative of Virginia in the Senate of the United States for about two years, 

1. In 1S19, 1820, and 1821, the f i-vivinjr heirs of Baron de Kalb petitioned Congress for the payment 
of alleged arrears due the genera at his death, and also for certain indemnities, but the claim was dis- 
allowed. Simeon de Witt Bloodgood, Esq., brought the matter to the attention of Congress, in 1836, but 
without success. On the 15th of December, 1854, the House of Representatives voted an appropriation 
of sixty-six thousand dollars to the heirs of Baron de Kalb, and on the 19th of January following, the 
Senate voted in favor of the appropriation ; so, at last, tardy justice will have reached the family of the 
hero. 



JOHN RANDOLPH. 



203 




Ho was seized with a paroxism of insanity, in 1811, after many months of moodi- 
ness, irrascibility, and suspicions of his best friends ; and he had returns of this 
malady several \imes during his life. He strenuously opposed the war with 
Great Britain, in 1812. Up to 1806, he had been a consistent member of the 
Eopublican i)arty ; then his views changed, and he became an opponent of Mad- 
ison, more bitter than any Federalist of New England, His political course, 
after the war, 'was erratic, and he delighted to be in the minority, because it 
gave him special opportunities for vituperation. He favored the claims of Mr. 
Crawford for the Presidency of the United States, in 1824; but, in 1828, he was 
t!io warm friend of Grcneral Jackson, and his ardent supporter for the same 
office. 

In 1822, Mr. Randolph made a voyage to England for the benefit of his health, 
where his political fame and strange personal appearance created quite a sensa- 
tion. He made another voyage thither, in 1824, but his health was too much 
impaired to receive any permanent benefit. From that time the current of his 
public career was often interrupted by nckness. In 1829, he was a member of 
the Virginia convention, called to revise the constitution of that State ; and, in 
1830, President Jackson appointed him minister to Russia. He accepted the 
station, on condition that he might spend the Winter in the south of Europe, if 
his health should require it. He reached St. Petersburg in September, but his 



294 JOSIAH BARTLETT. 



stay was short. Soon after his reception by the Emperoi-, the rigors of approach- 
ing Winter compelled him to leave the regton of the Neva. He arrived in Lon- 
don, in December, where he made a characteristic speech at the Lord Mayor's 
dinner. He remained in England until the Autumn of the following year, when 
he returned home in a state of extreme exhaustion. He rallied, and his con- 
stituents again elected him to Congress. But he did not take his seat there. 
Disease was busy with its fingers of decay. Consumption was making terrible 
breaches in the citadel of life ; and on the 23d of May, 18.33, he died in a hotel 
in Philadelphia, while on his way to New York to embark for Europe, for the 
benefit of his health. Mr. Randolph was a strange compound of opposing quali- 
ties. He was brilliant without sound sense ; morose and irascible with a kindly 
heart toward friends; an apparently gloomy flitalist — almost an Atheist at times 
— yet overflowing, frequently, with pious thoughts and sentiments.' He was ?j 
famous but not a great man. 



JOSIAH BARTLETT. 

FKW men have been more faithful in the performance of public duties, or more 
honest and honorable in their private relations, than Josiah Bartlett, one 
of the two members of the medical profession, in New Hampshire, who signed 
the Declaration of Independence. He was descended from an ancient Norman 
fiimily, some of whom became quite distinguished in English history. He was 
born at Amesbury, Massachusetts, in November, 1729. He was a maternal 
relative of Daniel Webster, and, like that statesman, he arose to eminence by 
the force of his own character, under Providence, without the factitious aid of 
wealth or fiimily influence. He lacked a collegiate education, but having acquired 
a knowledge of Greek and Latin in the family of a relative, he was prepared for 
the study "of medicine, his chosen profession. He commenced its practice at 
Kingston, New Hampshire, was skilful, and soon acquired a moderate fortune. 

Although an unbending republican in principle. Dr. Bartlett was greatly 
esteemed by the royal governor, Benning Wentworth, and received from him a 
magistrate's commission, and the command of a regiment of militia. In 1705, 
he was chosen a representative in the New Hampshire legislature, and there he 
became popular by his staunch advocacy of the cause of the colonists in their 
opposition to the Stamp Act. Wentworth attempted to win him to the side of 
the crown, by tempting bribes, but he rejected every overture. In 1774, he 
was a member of the general Committee of Safety, The appointment of that 
committee alarmed the governor. He dissolved the Assembly ; but the members, 
with Dr. Bartlett at their head, reassembled, and, like those of Virginia, ap- 
pointed delegates to the Continental Congress. One of these was Dr. Bartlett. 
Wentworth soon afterward took awajdiis magistrate's and military commissions; 
but the governor, in turn, was speedily deprived of his office, and became a 
fugitive. Dr. Bartlett was reelected to Congress, in 1775, and was one of the 
committee chosen to devise a plan for a confederation of the States. He ear- 
nestly supported the proposition for independence, and was the first man to sign 
it, after John Hancock. 

Dr. Bartlett remained in Congress until 1778, when he obtained leave to re- 

1. It is said that on one occasion he ascended a lofty spur of the Blue Ridge, at dawn, and from that 
mi'°-aificent observatory saw the sun rise. As its light burst in beauty and glory over the vast panorama 
bafore him, he turned to his servant and said, with deep emotion, " Tom, if any body says there is no 
(iod, tell them they lie !" Tlius he expressed the deep sense which his soul felt of the presence of a 
Great Creator. 



HORATIO GATES. 295 



turn home and superintend his deranged private affairs. He did not again 
resume his seat in that body, for tlie following year he was appointed chief 
justice of the Court of Common Pleas of his native State. He was afterward 
raised to the bench of the Superior Court ; and was very active in favor of the 
Federal Constitution. The legislature elected him first United States Senator, 
under the new government, but he declined the honor, having been previously 
chosen president, or governor of New Hampshire. That office he held, by suc- 
cessive election, until 1794, when he retired to private life, and sought needful 
repose, after serving his country faithfully full thirty years. That repose upon 
which he entered was but the prelude to a far longer one, near at hand. Ho 
died on the 19th of May, 1795, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. 



HORATIO OATES. 

TWO of the general officers of the Continental army were natives of England. 
These were Horatio Gates and Charles Lee, and both bear the just odium 
of being jealous of Washington, and aspiring to supplant him. Gates was born 
about the year 1728, and came to America as a subaltern in General Braddock's 
army, in 1755. He remained in Virginia, and paid much attention to military 
tactics. Being known as a good disciplinarian, he was chosen, by Congress, 
adjutant-general of the Continental army, when it was organized, in June, 1775; 
and he performed efficient service in his department, under Washington, until 
June, 1776, when he was appointed to the chief command of the Northern De- 
partment, with the commission of major-general. In the Autumn of that year 
he joined the main army in New Jersey, with a detachment of his command. 
The following Summer he superseded General Schuyler, who had been placed in 
command of the Northern forces, a few weeks before, and gained all the honor 
of the capture of Burgoyne and his troops, at Saratoga, in October, when the 
real praise was due to Schuyler, Arnold, and others. In that whole aftair Gates 
exhibited a want of magnanimity unbecoming a patriot and soldier. During the 
ensuing Winter he entered into a conspiracy, with others, to disparage Wash- 
ington, and secure for himself the office of commander-in-chief He used his 
power as President of the Board of War, for that purpose, but the scheme utterly 
failed. While the conspirators were thus busy, Washington and his army were 
suffering dreadfully at Valley Forge. Proni that time until appointed to the 
command of the Southern army, in the Spring of 1780, his military services were 
of little account. 

Wlien the news of Lincoln's misfortunes at Charleston reached Congress, that 
body, without consulting Washington, appointed Gates to the command in the 
South, foolishly supposing his name, as " the conqueror of Burgoyne," would 
have the effect to rally the people.' Washington would have named Greene, 
and all would have been well. Gates and his secretary overtook De Kalb' and 
the army at Deep River, in July, and marched forward to meet Cornwallis at 
Camden. His excessive vanity brought great misfortune. He was so sure of a 
victory, that he made no provision for a retreat ; and when that movement be- 
came necessary, it assumed the character of a rout. Marching at midnight 
in a, deep sandy road, the advanced guards of the two armies met a few miles 
north of Camden, without being aware of each other's approach. A fight in the 

1. General Charles Lee, who knew Gates well, said to him, on his departure, " Take care that you 
do not exchange Northern laurels for Southern willows." There was prophecy in the warning. 



296 JAMES MADISON". 



dark ensued, and tlio following morning a severe battle took place. The Amer- 
icans were defeated and fled in great contusion. Gates, almost unattended, 
hastened toward Charlotte. He tried to rally his fugitive troops in that vicinit^y, 
but failed. General Greene was soon afterward appointed to succeed him, and 
tlicn commencjd that series of brilliant movements which finally resulted in 
driving the British to the sea-board. A committee of Congress, appointed to 
scrutinize Gates' conduct, acquitted him of blame, and the national legislature 
sanctioned the verdict. Ho remained on his farm in Virginia until 1782, when 
he was reinstated in his mihtary command in the main army, but active services 
were no longer needed. . At the close of the contest ho retired to his estate, 
where he remained until 1790, when ho made his permanent abode upon Man- 
hattan Island, near Kew York city. Two years later ho was a member of the 
legislature of Nev/ York, where ho served one term. He died at his residence, 
near the corner of the present Twenty-Third Street and Second Avenue, in New 
York, on the 10th of April, 1S06, at the age of seventy-eight years. General 
Gates possessed many excellent qualities, but he was deficient in the necessary 
qualifications for a successful commander, and his vanity generally misled his 
judgment. He was a gentleman in his manners, humane and benevolent, but 
ho lacked intellectual cultivation and true magnanimity. 



JAMES MADISON. 

WITHIN site c f Blue Ridge, in Virginia, livod three Presidents of the United 
States, whose pubhc career commenced in the Revolutionary times, and 
vs^hose political fxith was the same throughout a long series of years. These 
were Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and James Madison. The latter was 
born at the house of his maternal grandmot' / ;?, on the banks of the Rappahan- 
nock, in Virginia, on the 16th of March, 1-61. His parents resided in Orange 
county, and there, during a long life, the ^^^rainent statesman lived. After com- 
pleting his preparatory studies, he was "ent to the college at Princeton, New 
Jersey, then under the charge of Dr. W' dierspoon, for his parents knew the at- 
mosphere of tho lower country at "Will am sburg to be uncongenial for persons 
from tho mountain regions. He lef- Princeton, in the Spring of 1773, with 
health much impaired by intense stud ' and immediately entered upon a course 
of reading preparatory for the practic '■ of the law, which he had chosen for a 
profession. Political affairs attracts l his attention, and he Avas diverted from 
law to public employments. In the Spring of 17 76, he was a member of the 
convention which formed the first Co \stitution for the new free State of Virginia ; 
and tho same year he was elected f member of the State legislature. He lost 
the suffrages of his constituents the bllowing year, because, it was alleged, that 
he would not " treat " the people tf liquor, and could not make a speech ! The 
legislature named him a member )f the executive council, in Avhich office he 
served until 1779. when he was e^ ^cted to membership in the Continental Con- 
gress. He took his seat there in VLarch, 1780, and for three years he was one 
of the most reliable men in that b tdj.- 

Mr. Madison was again a mfoaber of the Virginia Assembly, from 1784 to 
1786, where he was the champi' n of every wise and liberal pohcy, especially in 



1. While at Princeton, be slept only t iree hours of the twenty-four, for months together. 

2. He was the author of the able inp ructions to Mr. Jay, when he went as minister to Spain : also of 
ike Address of the States, at the end *■ the war, on the subject of the financial affairs of the confederacy. 



JAMES MADISON. 



297 




religious matters. He advocated the separation of Kentucky from Virginia," 
opposed the introduction of paper money ; supported the laws codified by Jeffer- 
son, Wythe, and Pendleton ; and was the author of the resolution which led to 
the convention at Annapolis, in 1786, and the more important constitutional 
convention, in 1787. Ho was a member of the convention that formed the 
Federal Constitution, and he kept a futhful record of all the proceedings of that 
body, day after day.^ After the labors of the convention were over, he joined 
with Hamilton and Jay in the publication of a series of essays in support of it.2 
These, in collected form, are known as The Federalist In the Virginia conven- 
tion called to consider the constitution, Mr. Madison was chiefly instrumental in 
procuring its ratification, in spite of the fears of many, and the eloquence of 
Patrick Henry. He was one of the first representatives of Virginia in the Fed- 
eral Congress, and occupied a seat there until 1797. He was opposed to tho 
financial policy of Hamilton, and to some of the most important measures of 
"Washington's administration, yet this difference of opinion did not produce a 
personal alienation of those pa-triots.^ His republicanism was of the conservative 
stamp, yet Mr. Jefferson esteemed him so highly that he chose him for his Sec- 

1. His interesting papers were purchased by Congress, after his death, for the sum of thirty thousand 
dollars. 

2. See sketches of Hamilton and Jay. 

3. Mr. Madison was opposed to the Alien and Sedition laws, enacted at the beginning of John Adams' 
administration ; and it became known, after his death, that he was the author of the famous Resolutions 
on that topic, adopted in the convention of Virginia, held in 1798. 

13* 



298 BENJAMIN LINCOLN. 

retarj of State, in 1801. Tliat station he filled with rare ability during the whole 
eight years of Jefferson's administration, an(t then he was elected President of 
the United States. It was a period of great interest in the history of our Re- 
public, for a serious quarrel was then pending between the governments of the 
United States and Great Britain. In the third year of his administration the 
quarrel resulted in war, which continued from 1812 until 1815. 

After serving eight years as chief magistrate of the Eepublic, Mr. Madison, in 
March, 1817, returned to his paternal estate of Montpelier, where he remained in 
retirement until his death, which occurred almost twenty years afterward. lie 
never left his native county but once after returning from Washington, except 
to visit Charlottesville, occasionally, in the performance of his duties as visitor 
and rector of the University of Virginia. He made a journey to Richmond, in 
1829, to attend a convention called to revise the Virginia Constitution. Ho had 
married an accomplished widow, in Philadelphia, in 1794, and with her, his 
books, friends, and in agricultural pursuits, ho passed the evening of his days in 
great happiness. At lengtli, at the age of eighty-five years, on a beautiful 
morning in June (28th), 183G, the venerable statesman went peacefully to his 
rest. 



BENJAMIN I.INCOLN, 

THE first Secretary of War after the struggle for independence had resulted suc- 
cessfully for the colonists, in the capture of Cornwallia and his army, was 
Benjamin Lincoln, one of the most accomplished soldiers of the contest, then 
almost ended. He was born at Ilingham, Massachusetts, on the od of February, 
1733. He was trained to the business of a farmer, and had very few educational 
advantages. Until past forty years of age ho pursued the quiet, unpretending 
life of a plain agriculturist, occasionally holding the office of justice of the peace, 
sometimes representing his district in the colonial legislature, and, when the 
tempest of the Revolution was about to burst forth, he was colonel of the militia 
of his county, under a commission from Governor Hutchinson. At the close of 
1774, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts appointed him major-general of 
militia, and being an excellent disciplinarian, ho was actively emploved until 
the close of 1776, in training recruits for the Continental service. With quite a 
large body of Massachusetts levies, he joined Washington, at Morristown, in 
February, 1777. On the 19th of that month, Congress appointed him one of 
five major-generals. During the ensuing Summer and Autumn ho w^as active in 
collecting troops and otherwise assisting in the operations which resulted in the 
capture of Burgoyne and his army, at Saratoga. In the battle of the 7th of 
October, at Saratoga, he was severely wounded, and was detained from active 
service until 1778, when he joined the army under Washington. In September 
of that year, he was appointed to supersede General Hovv^e, in command of the 
Southern Army, and arrived at Charleston, in December. He was chiefly en- 
gaged during the following season in keeping the British below the Savannah 
river. On the arrival of a French fleet and army, under D'Estaing, off" the 
Georgia coast, early in September, Lincoln marched toward Savannah, to co- 
operate with them in besieging the British army, then strongly intrenched in 
that city. After a siege and assault, in October, D'Estaing, pleading danger to 
his shipping, from Autumnal storms, as an excuse, suddenly resolved to depart, 
and the Americans were compelled to abandon the enterprise, and retire into 
South Carolina. 

During the Spring of 1780, Lincoln, with a comparatively weak force, was 



EICHARD CLOUGH ANDERSOK. 299 

besieged in Charleston by a strong land and naval armament, under General Sir 
Henry Clinton and. Admiral Arbuthnot. After making a gallant defence for 
several weeks, he was comijelled to capitulate, and the Southern Army, Charles- 
ton and its fortifications, and the inhabitants of the city, were surrendered, un- 
conditionally, into the hands of British power. General Lincoln was permittee', 
to return to his native town, on parole ; and, in November following, he was 
exchanged. He remained in retirement until the Spring of 1781, when be 
joined the army under AVashington, on the Hudson, and was very active in 
preparations to attack the Biitish on Manhattan Island, the ensuing Summer. 
Toward Autumn he accompanied the army to Virginia, rendered efficient ser- 
vice in the siege of Yorktown, and had the honor of receiving the surrendered 
sword of Cornwallis, from the hands of General O'llara.' A few days after that 
event, Lincoln was appointed, by Congress, Secretary of tlio "War Department. 
Ho held the office until near the close of 1783, when he resigned and retired to 
his flirm. In 1786-7, he was placed in command of troops called out to quell 
the insurrection in Massachusetts, known as SJiwifs Rebellion. He was imme- 
diately successful, and then again sought repose and pleasure in the pursuits of 
agriculture, science, and literature. There ho remained until 1789, when Pres- 
ident Washington appointed him collector of the port of Boston. Ho performed 
the duties of that office for about twenty years, when, on the 9th of May, 1810, 
his earthly career was closed by death. That event occurred at his residence, in 
Hingham, when he was about seventy-seven j^cars of age. 

General Lincoln was a ripe scholar and humble Christian, as well as a pat- 
riotic soldier and honest civilian. The Faculty of Harvard University conferred 
upon him the degree of Master of Arts. He was a member of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences ; and he was president of the Massachusetts 
Society of the Cincinnati, from its organization, until his death. 



RICHARD CLOUGH ANDKRSON. 

ONE of the earliest natives of Louisville, Kcntuckj^, was Richard C. Anderson, 
in whose honor a county in that State is named. His father was a gallant 
soldier of the War for Independence, and his mother was a sister of the hero of 
the North-west, George Rogers Clarke. Louisville was a small village at the 
Falls of the Ohio, at the time of his birth, vdiich occurred on the 4th of August, 
1788. At an early age ho was sent to Virginia to bo educated, for the foot-prints 
of the schoolmaster were few west of the Alleghanies, at that time. Emigration 
was then pouring a vast tide into the Ohio valleys, and a few years afterward, 
villages began to dot its banks at every important point. 

Young Anderson was graduated at William and Mary College, studied law 
under Judge Tucker, and commenced its practice in his native town, then rap- 
idly swelling toward the proportions of a city. He soon stood in the front rank 
of his profession as an able counsellor and eloquent advocate. Political life pre- 
sented a high road to fame, and friends and ambition urged him to travel it. For 
several years ho was a member of the Kentucky legislature; and, in 1817, he 
was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress, where he continued four years. 
It was a period of great excitement in that body, for, during Mr. Anderson's 
membership, the admission of Missouri was the topic for long and angry debates. 

1. Lincoln had been much mortified by the manner of bis surrender at Charleston, imposed by the 
haua:hty Clinton, and he was now allowed to be the chief actor in a scene move hnniiliating to British 
pricie than his own had experienced. It was a triumph and a punishment that pleased him. 



300 MATHEW CAREY. 



In these Mr. Anderson took a prominent part, and was highly esteemed for hia 
manly and conciliatory course. His constituents were anxious to reelect him, 
in 1822, but he declined the honor, because he considered his services to be more 
valuable, at that juncture, in the legislature of his own State, to which he was 
elected. He was chosen Speaker of the Assembly, but did not preside in that 
body long, for, in 1823, President Monroe; appointed him the first United States 
minister to the new Republic of Colombia, South America. There he was re- 
ceived with joy and great honor, and during his residence at Bogota, the capital, 
he won for himself and family the unaffected love and esteem of all classes. In 
1824, he negotiated an important treaty. The following year death took his 
wife from him, and he returned to Kentucky to make provision for the education 
of his children. Ho was again in Bogota, in the Autumn of that year, and re- 
mained until the Spring of 1826, when President Adams appointed him envoy 
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the diplomatic Congress held at 
Panama, to consider the welfare of the South American Republics. On his way 
thither ho was taken ill at the village of Tubaco, where ho died, on the 24th of 
July, 1826, at the ago of thirty-eight years. He was succeeded in office by 
WiUiam Henry Harrison, afterward President of tlio United States, 



MATHEW Cx\REY. 

FEW men have exerted so wide and beneficial an influence, in the domain of 
letters, in the United States, as Mathew Carey, an eminent author and 
publisher, who was born in the city of Dublin, on the 28th of January, 1760. 
His early education was comparatively limited, but a love of knowledge when 
Ills faculties began to expand on the verge of j^outhhood, overcame all difficulties. 
Even while yet a mere child, books afforded him more pleasure than playmates; 
and before he was fifteen years of age, he had made great progress in the ac- 
quisition of the modern languages of Europe. He would have become a dis- 
tinguished linguist, had opportunity for study been given him ; but at the age of 
fifteen he was apprenticed to a printer and bookseller to learn the business 
whicli he had chosen as a life-vocation. His first effort in authorship was made 
when he was seventeen years of age. His topic was Duelling. Two years after- 
ward (1779) he prepared and advertised a political pamphlet, which alarmed the 
Irish Parliament, and caused tliat body to suppress its publication. A prosecu- 
tion was determined upon, and his friends judiciously advised him to leave the 
country. Ho escaped to Paris, where he became acquainted with Dr. Franklin, 
and learned much concerning America. The storm subsided ; and, in the course 
of the following year, young Carey, then only twenty years of age, returned to 
Dublin, and became editor of the Freeman^ s Journal. In 1783, his father fur- 
nished him with means to establish a paper called the Volunteers Journal. It 
exerted a wide and powerful political influence; and in consequence of the pub- 
lication in its columns, in 1784, of a severe attack upon the British government, 
and an alleged libel upon the Prime Minister, Mr. Carey was arrested, taken to 
the bar of the House of Commons, and consigned to Newgate prison. The Lord 
Mayor of London released him in the course of a few weeks ; and in the Autumn 
of i784, he sailed for America. He landed at Pluladelphia with a few guineas 
in his pocket, chose that city for a residence, and, in January, 1785, commenced 
the publication of the Pennsylvania Herald. That paper soon became flimous for 
its legislative reports, prepared by Mr. Carey himself. Bold, and faithful to his 
convictions, in editorship, he often offended his opponents. Among these v/as 



MATHEW CAREY. 



301 




Colonel Oswald, of the artillery corps of the Revolution, who was then editing- a 
newspaper. Their quarrel resulted in a duel, in which Mr. Carey was severely 
wounded. 

In 1786, Mr. Carey commenced the publication of the Columbian Magazine. 
The following year he issued another publication, called the American Museum, 
which ho continued for six years, when the prevalence of yellow fever, in Phila- 
delphia, suspended it. During that season of pestilence the courage and benevo- 
lence of Mr. Carey, as an associate with Stephen Girard and others as health 
commissioners, were nobly exhibited. Their labors for the sick and orphans 
were incessant and beneficent. His experience led him to the publication of an 
able essay on the origin, character, and treatment of yellow fever, in 1794. At 
about the same time he was active in founding the Hihernian Society, for the 
relief of emigrants from Ireland. In 1796, he was zealously engaged, with others, 
in establishing a Sunday School Society in Philadelphia ; and the same year ho 
entered into a controversy with the celebrated William Cobbett, with so much 
logic and energy, that he silenced his antagonist. 

The most important effort, made by Mr. Carey in publishing, was in 1802, when 
he put forth a handsome edition of the standard Enghsh Quarto Bible. His 
chief travelhng agent for its sale was Reverend Mason L. Weems, who disposed 



302 DAVID PORTER. 



of several thousand copies.^ It was profitable and creditable to Mr. Carc}-. 
During the whole exciting period just previous to the breaking out of the war 
with Oreat Britain, in 1812, Mr. Carey's pen was continually busy on topics of 
jDubhc interest; and in the midst of the violent party excitement, in 1814, ho 
published his famous Olive Branch. It was intended to soften the asperities of 
party spirit, create a thoroughly American sentiment among all classes, and pro- 
duce peace and conciliation. It was eminently successful ; and for this efl'ort, 
Mathew Carey deserved a civic crown. Ten thousand copies were sold, and its 
salutary influence is incalculable. 

In 1818, Mr. Carey commenced the preparation of his most important historical 
work, the Vindiclce Bibeniia'. He soon afterward directed his attention especially 
to political economy, and wrote voluminously upon the subject of tariffs. No 
loss than fifty-nine pamphlets upon that and cognate topics were written by him 
between the years 1819 and 1833, and comprising over twenty-three hundred 
octavo pages. Besides these, he wrote numerous essays for newspapers, memo- 
rials to Congress, &c. Internal improvements also engaged his mind and pen, 
and his effo'i'ts in that direction entitle him to the honor of a public benetactor. 
Indeed, throughout his whole life Mr, Carey was eminently a benefactor, public 
and private; and hundreds of widows and orplians have earnestly invoked 
Heaven's choicest blessings upon his head. Scores of young men, who had been 
profited by his generous helping hand, loved him as a father; and people of the 
city in which he lived regarded him witli the highest reverential respect, for his 
many virtues. There was sincere mourning in many households, in Philadelphia, 
when, on the 17th of September, 1839, that good man's spirit left earth for a 
brighter sphere. He had lived to the ripe old age of almost eighty years; and, 
in addition to a large fortune, he left to his descendants the precious inheritance 
of an untarnished reputation. 



DAVID PORTER. 

THE motto "Free Trade and Sailors' Rights," which became tlie text for many 
a song and speech, some forty years ago, was first emblazoned upon the 
broad pennant of Commodore Porter, that floated from the mast-head of his flag- 
ship, the Essex, when he sailed on his famous cruise in the Pacific Ocean, toward 
the close of 1813, The author of that motto was one of the bravest of the 
American naval commanders during the last war between the United States 
and Great Britain. He was born in Boston, on the 1st of February, 1780. His 
parents were in moderate circumstances, and after receiving the rudiments of 
education, David was compelled to labor most of the time whh his hands. He 
had early manifested a great desire to become a sailor; and, at the age of nine- 
teen years, that ardent aspiration was fully gratified. His talent and general 
energy of character attracted the attention of some influential friends, who pro- 
cured for him a midshipman's warrant ; and at the time when war with France 
was yet a probability, he sailed in the frigate Constellation. His first experience 
in naval warfare was during that cruise, when the Constellation, in February, 
1799, captured the French frigate, L' Insurgente. Young Porter's gallantry on 
that occasion was so conspicuous, that he was immediately promoted to lieuten- 
ant. He was also engaged in the severe action with La Vengeance, a year later; 
and, in the Autumn of 1803, he accompanied the first United States squadron to 

1. See sketch of Mr. Weems. 



ALEXANDER MACOMB. 803 



the Mediterranean, sent thither to protect American commerce against the Bar- 
bary pirates. He was on board the Philadelphia, when that vessel struck upon 
a rock in the harbor of Tripoli, and was among those who suffered a painful im- 
prisonment in the hands of that barbarous people/ After that [1806] he was 
appointed to the command of the brig Enterprise, and cruised in the Mediterra- 
nean for six years. On his return to the United States, he was placed in com- 
mand of the flotilla station in the vicinity of New Orleans, where he remained 
until war was declared against Great Britain, in 1812. Then he was promoted 
to captain ; and, in the frigate Essex, he achieved, during the remainder of that 
year, and greater part of 1813, those brilliant deeds which made him so flimous. 
From April to October, 1813, he captured twelve armed British whale-ships, 
with an aggregate of one hundred and seven guns, and three hundred men. He 
also took possession of an island of the Washington group, in the Pacific, and 
named it Madison, in honor of tlio then President of the United States. The 
English sent a number of heav}'- armed ships to capture or destroy Porter's little 
squadron ; and near Valparaiso, on the coast of Chili, the Essex was captured, in 
February, 1814, after a hard-fought battle with immensely superior strength. 
Commodore Porter wrote to the Secretary of the Navy, " We have been unfor- 
tunate but not disgraced." When he came home he was every where received 
with the highest honors. Congress and the several States gave him thanks, and 
by universal acclamation he was called the Hero of the Pacific. He afterward 
aided in the defence of Baltimore. When peace came, he was appointed one of 
the naval commissioners to superintend national marine affairs. In 1817, he 
commanded a small fleet, sent to suppress the depredations of pirates and freo- 
booters in the Gulf of Mexico, and along its shores. 

Commodore Porter resigned his commission in the Summer of 1826, and was 
afterward appointed resident United States minister, in Turkey. He died near 
Constantinople on the 3d of March, 1843, at the age of sixty-three years. 



ALEXANDER MACOMB. 

AMONG the stirring scenes of a military post in time of war, Alexander Macomb 
was born, and afterward became a noted martial leader. His birth oc- 
curred in the British garrison at Detroit, on the 3d of April, 1T82, just at the 
close of hostilities between Great Britain and her colonies. When peace came, 
his father settled in New York ; and at eight years of age, Alexander was placed 
in a school at Newark, New Jersey, under the charge of Dr. Ogden. There his 
military genius and taste became manifest. He formed his playmates into a 
company, and commanded them with all possible juvenile dignity. At the ao-e 
of sixteen years he joined a company of Rangers, whose services were offered to 
the government of the United States, then anticipating a war with France. The 
following year he Avas promoted to a cornetcy in the regular army, but the cloud 
of war passed away, and liis services were not needed. He had resolved on a 
military life, and was among the few officers retained in the regular service, on 
the disbanding of the army. He was commissioned second-lieutenant, in Feb- 
ruary, 1801, and first-lieutenant, in October, 1802, when he was stationed at 
Philadelphia, in the recruiting service. On completing a corps, he marched to 
the Cherokee country to join General Wilkinson. After a year's service there, 
his troops were disbanded, and he was Ofdered to West Point to join a corps of 

1. See sketches of Decatur and Bainbridge. 



804 JAMES MONROE. 



engineers. There he became adjutant, and ^o advocate-general. So highly 
were his services in the latter office esteemed, and his attainments admired, that 
he was employed by the government in completing a code of regulations for 
courts-martial. 

Lieutenant Macomb was promoted to captain of a corps of engineers, in 1805 ; 
and, in 1808, he was raised to the rank of major. In the Summer of 1810, ho 
was commissioned lieutenant-colonel; and, ou the organization of the arm}', in 
April, 1812, he was appointed acting adjutant-general. After the declaration 
of war, a few weeks later, he was commissioned colonel of artillery, and joined 
Wilkinson on the Canada frontier. He shared in the mortifications of that cam- 
paign of 1813; but at Plattsburgh, in September, the following year, while 
bearing the office of brigadier, he nobly cooperated with Macdonough on the 
lake, in a victory so decided and important, as to almost obliterate the shame 
of former failures. For his gallant services on that occasion he received the 
thanks of Congress and a gold medal; and the President conferred on him the 
honor of a major-general's commission. At the close of the war he was retained 
in the service, and ordered to the command of the military fort at Detroit, his 
birth-place. In 1821, he was called to the head of the engineer department at 
Washington city; and on the death of Major-General Brown, in 1828, he was 
promoted to General-in- G hief o^ the army of the United States. He died at his 
head-quarters, Washington city, on the 25th of June, 1841, and v/as succeeded 
in office by Major-general Scott. 



JAMES MONROE. 

THE fifth President of the United States, James Monroe, like four of his pre- 
decessors in office, was a native of Virginia. He was born in Westmore- 
land county, on the 2d of April, 1759. His early life was spent in the midst of 
the political excitements during the kindling of the War for Independence, and 
he imbibed a patriotic and martial spirit from the stirring scenes around him. 
He left the' college of William and Mary, at the age of about eighteen years. 
His young soul was fired by the sentiments of the Declaration of Independence, 
then just promulgated, and he hastened to the head-quarters of Washington, at 
New York, and enrolled himself as a soldier for Freedom. The disastrous battle 
near Brooklyn had just terminated, but he tasted of war soon afterward in the 
skirmish at Harlem and the battle at White Plains. He accompanied Washing- 
ton in his retreat across the Jerseys ; and with a corps of young men, as lieuten- 
ant, he was in the van of tlie battle at Trenton, where he was severely wounded. 
For his gallant services there he was promoted to captain ; and during the cam- 
paigns of 1777 and 1778, he was aid to Lord Stirling. In the battles of Brandy- 
wine, Germantown, and Monmouth, he was distinguished for bravery and skill ; 
and desirous of official promotion, from which, as a staff" officer, he was precluded, 
he made unsuccessful efforts to raise a regiment in Virginia. He soon afterward 
left the army, and commenced the study of law with Mr. Jefferson ; but when 
Arnold and Cornwallis invaded his native State, in 1781, he was found among 
the volunteers for its defence. He had been sent to the South, the previous 
year, by the governor of Virginia, to collect information respecting the military 
strength of the patriots, after the fall of Charleston. 

In 1782, Mr. Monroe was elected a member of the Virginia legislature, and 
that body soon afterward gave him a seat in the executive council. The follow- 
ing year, at the age of twenty-five, he wa& elected to the general Concrress, and 



JAMES MONROE. 



805 





/^^-^cr-'T^-^ ^^^ 



was present at Annapolis when Washington resigned his military commission 
to that body. He originated the first movement, in 1785, which led to the 
constitutional convention, in 1787. He was a member of the Virginia legis- 
lature in 1787, and the following year he was a delegate in the State convention 
to consider the Federal Constitution. He took part with Patrick Henry and 
others in opposition to its ratification, yet he was elected one of the first United 
States Senators from Virginia, under tliat instrument, in 1789. He remained in 
that body until 1794, when he was appointed to succeed Gouverneur Morris as 
minister at the French court. Washington recalled him, in 179G; and two 
years afterward he was elected governor of Virginia. He served in 'that office 
for three years, when Mr. Jefferson appointed him envoy extraordinary to act 
with Mr. Livingston at the court of Napoleon. He assisted in the negotiations 
for the purchase of Louisiana, and then went to Spain to assist Mr. Pinckney in 
endeavors to settle some boundary questions. They were unsuccessful. In 
1807, he and Mr. Pinckney negotiated a treaty with Great Britain, but it was 
unsatisfactory, and was never ratified. That year Mr. Monroe returned to the 
United States. 

Mr. Monroe was again elected governor of Virginia, in 1811, and soon after- 
ward President Madison called him to his cabinet as Secretary of State. He 
also performed the duties of Secretary of War, for awhile, and remained in Mr. 
Madison's cabinet during the residue of his administration. In 1816, he was 
elected President of the United States, and was reelected, in 1820, with great 

90 



806 THADDEUS KOSCIUSCZKO. 

unanimity, the Federal party, to which he had always been opposed, hnvincr 
become almost extinct, as a separate orgaiAzation. At the end of his second 
term, in 1825, Mr. Monroe retired from office, and made his residence in Loudon 
county, Yirg-inia, until early in 1831, when he accepted a liome with his son-in- 
law, Samuel L. Gouverneur, in the city of New York. He was soon afterward 
attacked by severe illness, which terminated his life on the 4th of July, 1831, 
when he was in the seventy-second year of his age. 



THAODEUS KOSCIUSCZKO. 

WHAT has been said of the American citizenship of La Fayette, Steuben, and 
De Kalb. is true of Kosciusczko. His deeds naturalized him, and wo 
claim him as our own, tliougli born in far-off Litliuania, the ancient Sarmatia. 
That event occurred iu the year 1756. He was descended from one of the most 
ancient and noble iamiUes of Poland, and was educated foi- the profession of a 
soldier, first in the mihtary school at Warsaw, and afterward in France. Love 
enticed him from Warsaw. He eloped with a young lady of rank and fortune, 
was pursued and overtaken by her proud fother, and was driven to the alter- 
native of killing the parent or abandoning the maid. He chose the latter, and 
went to Paris. There he became acquainted with Silas Deant the accredited 
commissioner of the revolted American colonies, who filled the soul of the young 
Pole with intense zeal to fight for liberty in America, and win those honors 
which Deane promised. He came in the Summer of 1T76, and presented him- 
self to Wasliington. "■ What can you do ?" asked the commander-in-chief " Try 
me," was the laconic reply. Washington was pleased with the young man, 
made him his aid, and, in October of that year, the Continental Congress gave 
him the appointment of engineer in the army, with the rank of colonel. He was 
in the Continental service during the whole of the war, and was engaged in most 
of the important battles in which Washing-ton in the North, or Greene in the 
South, commanded. He was greatly beloved by the American officers, and was 
cordially admitted to membership in the Society of the Cincinnati. At the close 
of the war he returned to Poland, wliose sovereign had permitted him. to draw 
his sword in America, and was made a major-general by Poniatowski, in 1789. 

In the Polish campaign against Russia, in 1792, Kosciusczko greatly distin- 
guished himself; and in the noble attempt of his countrymen, in 1794, to regain 
their lost liberty, he was chosen general-in-chief. Sooif afterward, at the liead 
of four thousand men, he defeated twelve thousand Russians. Invested with 
the powers of a military Dictator, he boldly defied the combined armies of Russia 
and Prussia, amounting to more than one hundred and fifty thousand men. At 
length success deserted him; and, in October, 1794, his troops were overpowered 
in a battle about fifty miles from Warsaw. He was wounded, fell from his horse, 
and was made prisoner, exclaiming, "The end of Poland!'' 

" Hope for a season bade the world farewell. 
And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusczko fell." — Campbell. 

The hero was cast into prison, in St. Petersburg, by the Empress Catherine. 
When she died, the Emperor Paul liberated him, and presented him with his own 
sword. Kosciusczko courteously refused the blade, and then uttered \hat terrible 
rebuke for the destroyers of Poland — that noble sentiment of a Patrioh's hearts 
"1 have no longer need of a sword, since I have no longer a country to defend." 
He never again wore a military weapon. 



CHARLES LEE. 307 



In the Summer of 1797, Kosciusczko visited America, and was received with 
distinguislied honors. Congress awarded him a hfe-pension, and gave him a 
tract of land, for his revolutionary services. The following year ho went to 
Fraoce, purchased an estate near Fontainebleau, and resided there until 1814. 
ile went to Switzerland, and settled at Soleuro, in 1816. Early the following 
year he abolislied serfdom on his family estates in Poland. On the 16th of Oc- 
tober, 1817, that noble patriot died, at the age of sixty-one years. His body 
was buried in the U)mb of the ancient kings of Poland, at Cracow, with great 
pomp; and at Warsaw there was a public funeral in his honor. The Senate of 
Cracow decreed that a lofty mound should bo erected to his memory, on the 
heights of Brouislawad; and for three years men of every class and age toiled 
in the erection of that magnificent cairn, three hundred feet in height. The 
cadets of the Military Academy, at "West Point, on the Hudson, erected an im- 
posing monument there to the memory of Kosciusczko, in 1829, at a cost of 
five thousand dollars. His most enduring monument is the record of his deeds 



on the pages of History 



CHARLES LEE. 

*' 1) OILING- WATER" was the significant name which the Mohawk Indians 
JD gave to Charles Lee, when he resided among tliem, and bore the honors 
of a chief' His character was indeed like boiling water — hot and restless. Ho 
was a native of Wales, where he was born in 1731. His father was an oflScer 
in the British army ; and it is asserted that the fiery lit'lo Charles received a 
military commission from George the Second, when only eleven years of age. 
In all studies, and especially those pertaining to military services, he was very 
assiduous, and became master of several of tlie continental languages. Love of 
adventure brought him to America, in 1756, as an officer in the British army, 
and he remained in service here during a greater ])art of the French and Indian 
war. He then returned to England; and, in 1702, he bore a colonel's com- 
mission, and served under Burgoyne, in Portugal. After that he became a 
violent politician, in England; and, in 1770, he crossed the channel, and rambled 
all over Europe, like a kniglit-errant, for about three years. His energy of 
character and military skill made him a .^avorite at courts, and he became an aid 
to Poniatowski, King of Poland. With that monarch's embassador, ho went to 
Constantinople as a sort of Polish Secretary of Legation, but, becoming tired of 
court inactivity and court etiquette, lie loft the service of his royal patron, went 
to Paris, came to America toward the close of 1773, and, at the solicitation of 
Colonel Horatio Gates, whom ho had known in England, ho was induced to buy 
an estate in Berkeley county, Virginia, and settle there. He resigned his com- 
mission in the British army, and became an American citizen. 

When the Continental army was organized, in June, 1775, Charles Lee was 
appointed one of the four major-generals, and accompanied Washington to Cam- 
bridge. He was active there until the British were driven from Boston, in the 
Spring of 1776, when ho marched, with a considerable force, to JSTew York, and 
afterward proceeded southward to watch the movements of Sir Henry Clinton. 
He participated in the defence of Charleston, as commander-in-chief; and after 
the British were repulsed, he joined Washington, at New York. After the battlo 

1. His tarry among the Mohawk Indians was at near the close of tlie French and Indian war, or about 
the year 1762. They were greatly pleased with his martial and energetic character, adonfed him as a 
son, according to custom, and made hir" " chief .'"'' th« ty>*iou. wiiu Ihe title o? Boiling Water. 



808 HUGH SWINTON LEGARE. 

at White Plains, and the withdrawal of a great^iortion of the American army to 
New Jersey, General Lee was left in command of a force on the east side of the 
Hudson, While Washington was retreating toward the Delaware, at the closo 
of Autumn, Lee tardily obeyed his orders to reinforce the flying arm}*, and was 
made a prisoner while tarrying in the interior of New Jersey. His services were 
lost to the country until May, 1178, when he was exchanged for General Pres" 
cott, captured in Rhode Island by Colonel Barton.^ A month afterward he was 
in command at Monmouth, where, during the hot contest of battle, he waa 
sternly rebuked by Washington, for a shameful and unnecessary retreat. That 
rebuke on the battle-field wounded Lee's pride, and he wrote insulting letters to 
the commander-in-chief. For this, and for misconduct before the enemy, he was 
suspended from command, pursuant to a verdict of a court-martial. Congress 
confirmed the sentence, and ho left the army in disgrace. 

It had been evident from the beginning that General Lee was desirous of 
obtaining the chief command, in place of Washington, and it was generally be- 
lieved that ho desired to injure the commander-in-chief by causing the loss of 
the battle at Monmouth. The verdict gave general satisfoction. The event 
made his naturally morose temper exceetfingly irascible, and Lee lived secluded 
on his estate in Berkeley, for awhile. Then he went to Philadelphia, took lodg- 
ings in a house yet [1855] standing, that once belonged to William Penn, and 
there died in neglect, at the age of fifty-one years. General Lee was a brilliant 
man in many respects, but ho lacked sound moral principles, was rough and 
profane in language, and neither feared nor loved God or man. In his will, ho 
bequeathed his "soul to the Almighty, and his body to the earth;" and then 
expressed a desire not to bo buried within a mile of any Presbyterian or Ana- 
baptist meeting-house, giving as a reason that he had "kept so much bad com- 
pany in life, that he did not wish to continue the connection when dead." His 
remains lie in the burial-ground of Christ Church, Philadelphia, 







HUGH SWINTON LECxARE. 

NE of the most promising men of the Palmetto State was Hugh S. Legare, 
who was 

" Snatched fill too early from that august fame 
That, on the serene heights of silvered age, 
Waited with laurelled hands." 

He was born at Dorchester, near Charleston, South Carolina, about the year 
1800. He was of Huguenot descent. His father died when ho was an infant, 
and he was left to the'charge of an excellent mother. At the age of nine years 
ho was placed in the school of Mr. King (afterward promoted to the bench in 
South Carolina), in Charleston, and was finally prepared for college by the ex- 
cellent Reverend Mr. Waddel. He learned rapidly, and at the age of fourteen 
years he entered the College of South Carolina, where he was graduated with 
the highest honors. The profession of the law became his choice, and for three 
years he studied assiduously under the direction of Judge King, his early tutor. 
He then went to Europe, where he remained between two and three years. 
Soon after his return, he was elected to a seat in the South Carolina legislature. 
While there, some of those measures which tended toward political disunion 
were commenced, but Mr. Legari was always found on the Federal side of the 
question, for he regarded the Union with the utmost reverence. 

1. See sketch of William Barton. 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 309 

In 1827, Mr, Legare and other cultivated gentlemen in the South commenced 
the publication of the "Southern Review," a hterarv and political periodical, 
which soon acquired great influence. Mr. Legare was one of the chief and most 
popular of the contributors. He was soon called to fill an important public 
station, by receiving the appointment of attorney-general of South Carolina. He 
performed the duties of that office with great ability, until 1832, when he was 
appointed minister to Belgium, by President Jackson. There he remained until 
early in 1837, when he returned to Charleston, and was almost immediately 
elected to a seat in Congress. He first appeared there at the extraordinary 
session called by President Van Buren to consider the financial affairs of the 
country. There he displayed great statesmanship and fine powers of oratory, 
and was regarded by friends and foes as a rising man. At the end of his con- 
gressional term, he resumed the practice of law in Charleston, and was pursuing 
his avocations with great energy and eclat, when President Harrison, in 1841, 
called him to his cabinet as attorney-general of the United States. He continued 
in that station, under President Tyler, until the Summer of 1843, when, on the 
occasion of a visit to Boston, with the chief magistrate, in June, he was seized 
with illness, and died there, on the 20th of that month, at the age of about forty- 
three years. 



JOHN QUINCY AI3AMS. 

THOMSON truthfuUy says: 

" Whoe'er amidst the sons 
Of reason, valor, liberty, and virtue, 
Displays distinguished merit, is a noble 
Of nature's own creating." 

Judged by such a book of heraldry, John Quincy Adams appears a true noble- 
man of nature, for, in the midst of many wise, and good, and great men, he stood 
preeminent in virtue. He was the worthy son of a worthy sire, the elder Pres- 
ident Adams, and was born at the family mansion at Quincy, Massachusetts, on 
the 11th of July, 1767. At the age of eleven years he accompanied his father 
to Europe, who went thither as minister of the newly-declared independent 
United States of America. In Paris he was much in the society of Dr. Franklin 
and other distinguished men ; and it may be truly said that he entered upon the 
duties of a long public life before he was twelve years of age, for then he learned 
the useful rudiments of diplomacy and statesmanship. He attended school in 
Paris and Amsterdam, and was in the University of Leyden, for awhile. In 
1781, when only fourteen years of age, ho accompanied Mr. Dana (United States 
minister) to St. Petersburg, as private secretary; and during the Winter of 
1782-3, he traveled alone through Sweden and Denmark, and reached the 
Hague in safety, where his father was resident minister for the United States. 
When his father was appointed minister to England, he returned home, and en- 
tered Harvard University, as a student, where he was graduated, in July, 1787. 

At the age of twenty years, young Adams commenced the study of law with 
Judge Parsons, at Newburyport,' and entered upon its practice in Boston. Pol- 
itics engaged his attention, and he wrote much on topics of public interest, 
especially concerning the necessity of neutrality, on the part of the United States, 

1. While Adams was a student, Judge Parsons was chosen to address President Washington on (he 
occasion of his visit to New England. The judge asked each of his students to write an address. That 
of Adams was chosen and delivered by the tutor. 



310 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 




3 ci. cAzto/^Vvi 



in relation to the quarrels of other nations. On the recommendation of Mn 
Jefferson, President Washington introduced him into the public service of his 
country, by appointing him resident minister in the Netherlands, in 1794. He 
was afterward sent to Portugal, in the same capacity, but on his way he was 
met by a new commission from his father (then President), as resident minister 
at Berlin. He was married in London, in 1797, to a young lady from Maryland, 
then residing there with her father. Mr. Adams returned to Boston, in 1801, 
and the following year he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate. In 1803, 
he was sent to the Federal Senate, where he uniformly supported the measures 
of Mr. Jefferson, the old political opponent of his father. Because of that act of 
obedience to. the dictates of his conscience and judgment, the legislature of 
Massachusetts censured him, and ho resigned his seat, in 1806. His republican 
sentiments increased with his age; and, in 1809, Mr. Madison appointed him 
minister plenipotentiary to the Russian court. There he was much caressed by 
the Emperor Alexander; and when, in 1812, war was declared between the 
United States and Great Britain, that monarch offered his mediation. It was 
rejected; and, in 1814, Mr. Adams was placed at the head of the American 
commission appointed to negotiate a treaty of peace with Great Britain. He 
also assisted in negotiating a commercial treaty with the same government ; and, 
in 1815, he was appointed minister to the English court. There he remained 
until 1817, when President Monroe called him to his cabinet as Secretary of 
State. He filled that office with signal ability during eight years, and then sue 
ceeded Mr. Monroe as President of the United States. 



DAVID CROCKETT. 3J1 



Mr. Adams' administration of four years was remarkable for its calmness, and 
the general prosperity of the country. There was unbroken peace with foreign 
nations, aad friendly domestic relations, until near the close of his term, when 
party spirit became rampant. He was succeeded in office by General Jackson, 
in the Spring of 1829, and retired to private life, more honored and respected 
by all parties than any retiring president since Washington left the chair of 
state. His countrymen would not allow him to remain in repose; and, in 1830, 
he was elected a representative in Congress. In Decembei', 1831, he took his 
seat there, and from that time until his death he continued to be a member of 
the House of Representatives, by consecutive reiilections. There he was distin- 
guished for mse, enlightened, and liberal statesmanship ; and, like the Earl of 
Chatham, death came to him at his post of duty. He wag suddenly prostrated 
by paralysis, while in his seat in the House of Representatives, at Washington, 
on the 22d of February, 1848, and expired in the Speaker's room, in the capitol, 
on the following day. His last words were, "This is the end of earth." Ho 
Was in the eighty- first year of his age. 



DAVID CROCKETT. 

" TYE sure you are right, then go ahead," is a wise maxim attributed to one 
-D whose life was a continual illustration of the sentiment. Every body has 
heard of "Davy Crockett," the immortal back-woodsman of Tennessee — the 
'" crack shot " of the wilderness — eccentric but honest member of Congress — the 
" hero of the Alamo " — yet few know his origin, his early struggles, and the 
general current of his life. History has but few words concerning him, but tra- 
dition is garrulous over his many deeds. 

David Crockett was born at the mouth of the Limestone river, Greene county, 
East Tennessee, on the 17th of August, I78G. His father was of Scotch-Irish 
descent, and took a prominent part in the War for Independence. It was all a 
wilderness around David's birth-place, and his soul communed with nature in 
its unbroken wildness, from the beginning. He grew to young manhood, with- 
out any education from books other than he received in his own rude homo. 
When only seven years of age, David's father was stripped of most of his little 
property, by fire. He opened a tavern in Jefferson county, where David was his 
main "help "until the age of twelve years. Then he was hired to a Dutch 
cattle-trader, who collected herds in Tennessee and Kentucky, and drove them 
to the eastern markets. This vagrant life, full of incident and adventure, suited 
young Crockett, but, becoming dissatisfied with his employer, he deserted him, 
and made his way back to his father's home. After tarrying there a year, ho 
ran away, joined another cattle-merchant, and at the end of the journey, in Vir- 
ginia, he was dismissed, wirh precisely four dollars in his pocket. For three 
years he was "knocking about," as he expressed it, and then sought his father's 
home again. Ho now enjoyed the advantages of a school for a few weeks; and 
finally, after several unsuccessful love adventures, he married an excellent girl, and 
became a father, in 1 8 1 0, when twenty-four years of age. He settled on the banks 
of the Elk river, and was pursuing the quiet avocation of a former, in Summer, 
and the more stirring one of hunter, in the Autumn, when war was commenced 
with Great Britain, in 1812. Crockett was among the firet to respond to Gen- 
eral Jackson's call for volunteers, and under that brave leader he was engaged 
in several skirmishes and battles. He received the commission of colonel, at the 
close of the war, as a testimonial of his worth. His wife had died while he was 



812 NATHANIEL MACON. 



in the army, and saveral small children were left to his care. The widow of a 
deceased friend soon came to his aid, and in this second wife he found an excel- 
lent guardian for his children. Soon after his marriage, he removed to Laurens 
county, where he was made justice of the peace, and was chosen to represent 
the district in the State legislature. Generous, full of fun, possessing great 
shrewdness, and "honest to a fault,"' Crockett was very popular in the legis- 
lature and among his constituents. In the course of a few years he removed to 
Western Tennessee, where he became a famous hunter. With the rough back- 
woodsmen there he was a man after their own hearts, and he was elected to a 
SDat in Congress, in 1828, and again in 1830.2 When the Americans in Texas 
commenced their war for independence, toward the close of 1835, Crockett 
hastened thither to help them, and at the storming of the Alamo, at Bexar, on 
the 6th of March, 1833, that eccentric hero was killed. lie was then fifty years 
of acre. 



NATHANIEL MACON. 

JOHN RANDOLPH, of Roanoke, made his friend, Nathaniel Macon, one of 
the legatees of his estate, and in his Will, written with his own hand, in 
1832, he said of him, "He is the best, and purest, and wisest man I ever knew." 
This was high praise from one who was always parsimonious in commendations, 
but it was eminently deserved. Mr. Macon was born in Warren county, North 
Carolina, in 1757. His early youth gave noble promise of excellent maturity, 
and it was fultilled in ample measure. After a preparatory course of study, he 
entered Princeton College. The tempest of the Revolution swept over New 
Jersey, toward the close of 1776, and that institution was closed. Young Macon 
returned home, his heart glowing with sentiments of patriotism, which had 
ripaned under the genial culture of President Witherspoon, and he entered the 
military service with his brother, as a volunteer and private soldier. While in 
the army the people elected him to a seat in the House of Commons of his native 
State. Then, as ever afterward, he was unambitious of office as well as of money, 
and it was with great difficulty that he was persuaded to leave his companions- 
in-arms, and become a legislator. He yielded, and then commenced his long and 
brilliant public career. He served as a State legislator for several years, when, in 
1791, he was chosen to represent his district in the Federal Congress. In that 
body he took a high position at once; and so acceptable were his services to his 
constituents, that he was regularly reelected to the same office until 1815, when, 
without his knowledge, the legislature of North Carolina gave him a seat in the 
Senate of the United States. During five years of his service in the House of 
Representatives [1801-1806], he was Speaker of that body. He continued in 
the Senate until 1828, when, in the seventy -first year of his age, he resigned, 
and retired to private life. At that time he was a trustee of the University of 
North Carolina, and justice of the peace for Warren county. These offices he 
also resigned, and sought repose upon his plantation. 

1. Many anecdotes illustrative of Colorel Crockett's honesty and generosity have heen related. Diir- 
in^ a season of scarcity, ha bought a flat-boat load of com, and offered it for sale cheap. " Have you 
got money to pay for it?" was his first question when a man came to buy. If ha replied " yes," Crockett 
would say, " Then you can't have a kernel. I biought it here to sell to people who have no money." 

2. He and the opposing candidate canvassed their district together, and made stump speeches. Crock- 
ett's opponent had written his speech, and delivered the same one at different places. David was al- 
ways original, and he readily yielded to his friend's request to speak Drst. At a point where both wished 
to make a good impression, Crockett desired to speak first. His opponent could not refuse ; but, to his 
dismay, he heard David repeat his own speech. The colonel had heard it so often that it was fixed in 
his memory. The other candidate was speechleas, and lost his election. 



SAMUEL SLATER. 813 



Mr. Macon was called from his retirement, in 1835, to assist in revising the 
Constitution of North Carolina. He was chosen president of the convention as- 
sembled for that purpose ; and the instrument then framed bears the marked 
impress of his genius and thoroughly democratic sentiments. The following 
ye.ir ho was chosen a presidential elector, gave his vote in the Electoral College 
fo;- Martin Van Buren, and then left the theatre of public life, forever. The sands 
of his existence were almost numbered. God mercifully spared him the pains 
of long sickness. Ho had been subject to occasional cramps in the stomach. 
On the morning of the 29th of June, 1837, ho arose early, as usual, dressed, and 
£;!iavcd himself, and after breakfast was engaged in cheerful conversation. At 
ton o'clock he was seized with a spasm, and without a struggle after the first 
paroxysm, ho expired. Peacefully his noble soul left its earth-tenement for its 
home in light ineffable. As he lived, so he died — a good man and a bright example. 

Mr. Macon was a member of Congress thirty-seven consecutive years ; a longer 
term of service than was ever given by one man. He was appropriately styled 
the Father of the House, and men of all creeds looked up to him as a Patriarch 
for counsel and guidance. 



SAMUEL SLATER. 

THE man who contributes to the comfoi-t of a people and the real wealth of a 
nation by opening new and useful fields of industry, is a public benefactor. 
For such reasons, Samuel Slater, the father of the cotton manufacture in the 
United States, ought to be held in highest esteem. He was a native of England, 
and was born near Belper, in Derbyshire, on the 9th of June, 1768. After 
acquiring a good education, his father, who was a practical farmer, apprenticed 
Samuel to the celebrated Jedediah Strutt, an eminent mechanic,' and then a 
partner with Sir Richard Arkwright, in the cotton-spinning business. Saniuel 
was then fourteen years of age, and being expert with the pen and at figures, he 
was much employed as a clerk in the counting-room. At about that time he 
lost his father, but found a good guardian in his master. He evinced an invent- 
ive genius and mechanical skill, at the beginning, and he soon became the 
" favorite apprentice." During the last four or five years of his apprenticeship 
he was Strutt and Arkwright's "right hand man," as general overseer both in 
the making of machinery and in the manufacturing department. 

Before he had reached his majority, young Slater had formed a design of going to 
America, with models of all of Arkwright's machines. At that time the convey- 
ing of m.achinery from England to other countries was prohibited, and severe 
government restrictions were interposed. Slater knew that, but was not dis- 
heartened. He revealed his plans to no one, and when he left his mother, he 
gave her the impression that he was only going to London. With a little mone}^, 
his models, and his indentures as an introduction, he sailed for New York on the 
13th of September, 1789, and arrived in November.2 There he was employed 
for a short time, when a better prospect appeared in a proposition from Messrs. 
Almy and Brown, of Providence, Rhode Island, to join with them in preparations 
for cotton-spinning. He went there, was taken to the little neighboring village 
of Pawtucket, by the venerable Moses Brown,3 and there, on the 18th of Jan- 
uary, 1790, he commenced making machinery with his own hands. Eleven 

1. Mr. Stnitt was the inventor of the Derby ribbed-stocking machine. 

2. Just as the ship sailed, he intrusted a letter for his mother to the hands of a friend, in which he 
gave her in format inn of his destination and his intentions. They never met again on earth. 

3. See sketch of Moses Brown. 



814 



SAMUEL SLATER. 




months afterward they " started three cards, drawing and roving, and seventy- 
two spindles, which were worked by an old fulHug-mill water-wheel in a clothier's 
establishment." There they remained about twenty montlis, when they had 
several thousand pounds of yarn on hand, after making great efforts to weave it 
up and sell it. Such was the beginning of the successful manufacture of cotton 
in the United States. Tench Coxe and others had urged the establishment of 
that branch of industry ; and several capitalists had attempted it, but with poor 
success with imperfect'^machinery. 

In 1793, Mr. Slater was a business partner with Ahny & Brown, and they 
built a factory yet [1855] standing, at Pawtucket. At about the same time he 
married Hannah Wilkinson, of a good Rhode Island family; and, in 1795, imi- 
tated Mr. Strutt by opening a Sabbath-school for children and youths, in his 
own house. The manuflictui-ing business was gradually extended, and Mr. 
Slater took pride in sending to Mr. Strutt, specimens of cotton yarn, equal to any 
manufactured in Derbyshire. When war with Great Britain commenced, in 
1812, and domestic manufactures felt a powerful impulse, there were seven 
thousand spindles in operation in Pawtucket alone ; and within the little State 
of Rhode Island, there were over forty factories and about forty thousand spindles. 
A writer, in 1813, estimated the number of cotton factories built and in course 
of erection, eastward of the Delaware river, at five hundred.' 



1. Accoriiing to the census of 1S80, the number of cotton-manufactiirine establishments in the United States 
was 756, with n capital of $208,000,000. These gave employment to 113,000 operatives, of whom 60,000 were men ; 



LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON. 315 

When President Jackson made his eastern tour, he visited Pawtucket, and, 
with the Vice-President, called on Mr. Slater and thanked him in the name of 
the nation, for what he had done. " You taught us how to spin," said the Pres- 
ident, "so as to rival Great Britain in her manufactures; you set all these 
thousands of spindles at work, which I have been delighted in viewing, and 
which have made so many happy by lucrative employment." " Yes, sir," Mr. 
Slater replied; "I suppose that I gave out the psalm, and they have been sing- 
ing to the tune ever since." 

Mr. Slater died at Webster, Massachusetts, (where he had built a foctory, and 
resided during the latter years of his life), on the 20th of April, 1834, at the age 
of about sixty-seven years. 



LUCRETIA MAKIA DAVIDSON. 

" la the cold moist earth we laid her, when the forest cast the leaf, 
And we wept that one so lovely should have a lot so brief; 
Yet not unmeet it was, that one, like that young f.iend of ours. 
So geatle and so beautiful, should perish with the flowers."— Bryant. 

" THHERE is no record." says Dr. Sparks, "of a greater prematurity of intellect, 
J. or a more beautiful development of native delicacy, sensibility, and moral 
purity," than was exhibited by Miss Lucretia Maria Davidson, the wonderful 
child-poet. She was the daughter of Dr. Oliver Davidson, and a mother of the 
highest susceptibility of feeling and purity of taste. She was born at Plattsburg, 
New York, on the 27th of September, 1808. Her body was extremely fragile 
from earliest infancy until her death. The splendor and strength of her intellect 
appeared when language first gave expression to her ideas, and at the age of 
four years she was a thoughtful student at the Plattsburg Academy. She shrunk 
from playmates, found no pleasure in their sports, and began to commit her 
thoughts (which came in numbers) to paper, before she had learned to write. 
Before she was six years of age her mother found a large quantity of paper 
covered with rude characters and ruder drawings of objects, which Lucretia had 
mad3, and carefully hidden. She had secretly managed to make a record of her 
thoughts, in letters of printed form, as she could not write, and on deciphering 
them, her mother discovered that they were regular rhymes, and the rude draw- 
ings were intended as illustrative pictures. Here was an author illustrating her 
own writings before she was six years of age! The discovery gave the mother 
much joy, but the child was inconsolable. The key to the arcanum of her greatest 
happiness was in the possession of another. 

Lucretia's thirst for knowledge increased with her years, and she would some- 
times exclaim, "Oh that I could grasp all at once!" She wrote incessantly, 
when leisure from domestic employment would allow, but she destroyed all she 
wrote, for a long time. Her earliest preserved poem was an epitaph ' on a pet 
Robin, written in her ninth year. At the age of eleven her father took her to 
see a room which was decorated for the purpose of celebrating the birth-day of 
Washington in. The ornaments had no charms for her ; the character of Wash- 
ington occupied all her thoughts ; and, on returning home, she wrote five excel- 
lent verses on that theme. An aunt ventured to express doubts of their origin- 
ality. The truthful child was shocked at the hint of deception, and she imme- 
diately wrote a poetic epistle to her aunt, on the subject, which convinced her 
that Lucretia was the author. 

85,000 women; 15,000 boys; 13,000 girls. The value of product* was $iy2,0U0,0U0 ; cost of raw iiiuttrial, 
$102,000,000; of which the raw cotton was $S7,000,000; total wages paid to operatives, $4^,000,000. 



316 JOHN" AEMSTRONCt. 

Before she was twelve years of age Lucretia had read most of the works of 
the standard English poets; the whole of the* writings of Shakspeare, Kotzebue, 
and Goldsmith ; much history, and several romances of the better sort. She was 
passionately fond of Nature, and she would sit for hours watching the clouds, 
the stars, the storm, and the rainbow, and when opportunity offered, mused 
abstractedly in the fields and forests, as if in silent admiration.' On such occa- 
sions her dark eye would light up with ethereal splendor, and she seemed really 
to commune with beings of angelic natures. At length her mother became ar\ 
invalid, and the cares of the household devolved on Lucretia. The little maiden 
toiled on and hoped on ; ever obedient, self-sacriticing, and thoughtful of her 
mother's happiness, while the wings of her spirit fluttered vehemently against 
the prison bars of circumstances, which kept it from soaring. " Oh," she said 
one day to her mother, " if / only possessed half the means of improvement which 
I see others slighting, I should be the happiest of the happy. I am now sixteen 
years old, and what do I know? Nothing !" Light soon beamed upon her 
darkened path. A generous stranger offered to give her every advantage of 
education. The boon was joyfully accepted, and Lucretia was placed in Mrs. 
Willard's school, in Troy. There she drank too deep and ardently at the fount- 
ain of knowledge — her application to study was too intense, and her fragile 
frame was too powerfully swayed by the energies of her spu-it. During her first 
vacation she suffered severe illness. After her recovery she was placed in Miss 
Gilbert's school, in Albany, but soon another illness prostrated her. She rallied, 
and then went home to die. Like a flower when early frost hath touched it, 
that sweet creature flidod and drooped; and on the 2fth of August, 1825, the 
perfume of her mortal life was exhaled in the sunbeams of immortality, before 
she had completed her seventeenth year. 

The last production of Miss Davidson's pen was written during her final ill- 
ness, and was left unfinished. • She had a dread of insanity, and that poem 
was on the subject. She wrote, 

^ " That thought comes o'er me in the hour 

Of grief, of sickness, or of sadness ; 
'Tis not the dread of Death — 'tis more : 
It is the dread of Madness I" 

God mercifully spared her that affliction, and her intellect was clear as a sun- 
beam when death closed her eyelids. 



JOHN A 11 AI S T II O N G . 

T17IIILE the remnant of the Continental army was encamped near ISTewburgh, 
! I a few months before they were finally disbanded, and much dissatisfaction 
existed among the officers and soldiers because of the seeming injustice of Con- 
gress, anonymous addresses appeared, couched in strong language, and calculated 
to increase the discontents and to excite the sufferers to mutinous and rebellious 
measures. Those addresses, which exhibited great genius and power of ex- 
pression, were written by John Armstrong, one of the aids to General Gates, 
and a young man then about twenty-five years of age. He was a son of General 
John Armstrong, of Pennsylvania, who was distinguished in the French and 

1. In 1829, a collection of her writings was published, with the title of Amir Khan a-rid other Poems, 
prefaced with a biographical sketch, by Professor S. V. 15. Morse. That volume forms her appropriate 
monument. 



JOHN ARMSTRONG. 317 

Indian war, and participated in the military events of the Revolution. John 
was born at; Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of November, 1758, and was 
educated in the college at Princeton. While a student there, in 1775, he joined 
the army as a volunteer in Potter's Pennsylvania regiment, and was soon after- 
Vv^ard appointed aid-de-camp to General Mercer. He continued with that brave 
officer until his death, at Princeton, early in 1777, when he took the same posi- 
tion in the military fomily of General Gates, with the rank of major. He was 
with that officer until the capture of Burgoyne. In 1780, he was promoted to 
a Ijutant-general of the Southern army, when Gates took the command, but be- 
coming ill on the banks of the Pedee, Colonel Otho H. Williams took his place, 
until just before the battle near Camden. Then ho resumed it, and continued 
with General Gates until the close of the war. It seems to have been at the 
suggestion of General Gates and other distinguished officers, that Major Armstrong 
prepared the celebrated Newhurgh Addresses.^ 

Under the administration of the government of Pennsylvania, by Dickenson 
and Franklin, Major Armstrong was Secretary of State and adjutant-general. 
These posts ho occupied in 1787, when he was elected to a seat in Congress. 
In the Autumn of that year he was appointed one of three judges for the Western 
Territory, but he declined the honor. In 1789, lie married a sister of Chancellor 
Livingston, of New York, and purchased a beautiful estate on the banks of the 
Hudson, in the upper part of Dutchess county, where ho resided until his death, 
fifty-four years afterward. He continually refused public office until the year 
1800, when, by an almost unanimous vote of the legislature of New York, he 
was chosen to represent the State in the Federal Senate. He resigned that office 
in 1802, but was reelected, in 1803. A few months afterward. President Jeffer- 
son appointed him minister plenipotentiary to France, where he remained more 
than six years, a portion of the time performing the duties of a separate mission 
to Spain, with which he was charged. 

In 1812, Major Armstrong was commissioned a brigadier-general in the army 
of the United States, and took command in the city of New York, until called 
to the cabinet of President Madison, the next year, as Secretary of War. Ho 
accepted the office with much reluctance, for he had many misgivings concerning 
the success of the Americans. He at once made some radical changes by sub- 
stituting young for old officers, and thereby made many bitter enemies. The 
capture and contiagratiou of Washington, in 1814, led to his retirement from 
office.^ Public opinion then held him chiefly responsible for that catastrophe, 
but documentary evidence proves the injustice of that opinion. No man ever 
took office with purer motives, or left it with a better claim to the praise of a 
fliithful servant. He retired to private life, resumed agricultural pursuits, and 
lived almost thirty j^ears after leaving pubhc employment. He died at his seat 
at Red Hook, Dutchess county, on the 1st of April, 1843, in the eighty-fifth year 
of his age. General Armstrong was a pleasing writer. He is known to the 
public, as such, chiefly by his Life of Montgomery^ Life of Wayne, and Notices of 
the War of 1812. 

1. The first Address set forih the grievances of the army, evoked the use of power in their hands to 
re Iress them, and proposed a meeting of officers to take matters into their own hands, and compel ('on- 
gress to be just. Washington defeated the movement by timely counter-measures. The attempt, how- 
ever, aroused Congress and the wliole country to a sense of duty toward the army, and a saiisfactoiy 
result was accomplished. No doubt the Address and its bold propositions wete put forth with patriotic 
intentions. Such was the opinion expressed to the author, by Washington, fourteen years afterward. 

2. In August, 1814, a strong British force, under General Ross, penetrated Maryland by way of the 
Patuxent, and after a severe skirmish with the Americans at Bladensburg, pushed on 1o Washington 
city, burned the capitol, the President-house, and other public and private buildings, and then hastily 
retreated. Armstrong was censured for not making necessary preparations for the invasion, as was 
alleged. 



318 



HOSEA BALLOIT. 




^- 



^-^-.^esu,^ 



HOSEA B A I. LOU. 

THAT gifted and remarkable promulgator of the religious doctrine known as 
Universalism, Hosea Ballou, \va» the founder of the sect in this country, 
and for that reason, as well as for the patriarchal age to which he attained, as a 
minister, he was appropriately called by the aftectionate and reverential name 
of Father Ballou. He was a native of Richmond, New Hampshire, where he 
was born on the 30th of April, 1771. His early years were passed among the 
beautiful and romantic scenery of Ballou's Dale, and in the groves, " God's first 
temples," his devotional feelings were early stirred and long nourished. His 
early education was utterly neglected ; and it Was when he was upon the verge 
of manhood that he first studied English grammar, and applied himself earnestly 
to the acquirement of knowledge from books. At the age of sixteen years Im 
first managed to read and write fluently, after a great deal of unaided industry 
and perseverance. In those efforts, the family Bible became his chief instructor, 
and it was the instrument, under God, that made him what he was in after life. 
Farm labor was the daily occupation of his youth, and it gave him physical vigor 
for the severe labors of a long life. 

At the age of eighteen years young Ballou became a. member of the Baptist 
Church. His religious views soon changed. He became possessed of the idea 
that all would be finally happy, because " God is love, and his grace is impar- 
tial." The idea took the form of a creed, and an earnest longing to have others 
enjoy what he felt to be a great blessing, caused him to commence preaching, 
feebly yet effectivel}^, at the agf^ "" ' twenty years. At a common school and an 



HOSEA BALLOU. 319 



academy he studied intensely "night and day, slept little and ate little." Then 
he commenced school teaching tor a livelihood, studying assiduously all the 
while, and preaching his new and startling doctrine, occasionally. At the ago 
of twenty-four years he abandoned school teaching, and dedicated his hfo to the 
promulgation of his peculiar religious views, travelling from place to place, and 
subsisting upon the free bounties of increasing friends. His itinerant labors 
ceased in 1794, when he became pastor of a congregation, first in Dana, Massa- 
chusetts, and then in Barnard, Vermont. Ilis warfare upon prevailing religious 
opinions produced many bitter opponents, yet meekly and firmly he labored op, 
spreading the circle of his influence with tongue and pen. Mr. Ballou was 
undoubtedly the first who, in this country, inculcated Unitarianimi ; and every 
where his doctrine was new, and "a strange thing in Israel." 

In 1804, Mr. Ballou published Notes on the Parables, and soon afterward his 
Treatise on the Atonement, appeared. These were met by heartiest condemnation 
on the part of his opponents, while they were very highly esteemed by his religious 
adherents. In 1807, he was called to the pastoral charge of a congregation at 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where he continued to preach to crowded houses 
on the Sabbath, and teach a school during the week, until the war between the 
United States and Great Britain was kindled, in 1812. lie was in the midst of 
those who violently opposed the war ; and because he patriotically espoused the 
cause of his country, ho made many bitter enemies, and impaired his usefulness. 
He accordingly left Portsmouth, in 1815, and accepted a call to Salem. While 
there he engaged in the celebrated controversy with Rev, Abner Kneeland, 
whose faith in Christianity had failed him. It ended happily in the avowed 
conviction of Mr. Kneeland of the truths of revealed religion. Mr. Ballou re- 
mained in Salem about two years, when he was invited to make Boston his field 
of labor. Near the close of 1817, he was instahed pastor of the Second Uuiver- 
salist Church, in Boston, and that connection was only severed by his death. 
There his ministrations were attended by immense congregations, and he laid 
the foundations of Urdtarianism and Universalism strong and deep in the New 
England metropolis. 

In 1819, Mr. Ballou established the Universalist Magazine, which soon acquired 
high reputation for its literary merits and denominational value. The following 
year he compiled a collection of H3nnns for the use of the sect; and soon after- 
ward he made a professional viiit to New York and Philadelphia, whei-e great 
numbers of people listened to his eloquent and logical discourses. In Philadel- 
phia, he preached in the Washington Garden Saloon, no meeting-house being 
large enough to hold the immense crowds that gathered to hear him. In 1831, 
he was associated with a nephew in publishing the Uhiversalist Expositor, a 
quarterly periodical ; arid at about the same time volumes of his Sermons and 
Lectures were published. In 1 834, he wrote and put forth An Examination of 
the Doctrine of Future Retribution; and in the meanwhile his pen was ever busy 
in contributions to denominational publications. Old age now whitened his 
locks, yet his "eye was not dim nor his natural forces abated," and at the age of 
seventy-two years [1843] he made a long journey to Akron. Ohio, to attend a 
national convention of Universalists. Thousands flocked thither to see and hear 
the fiir-famed Father Ballou, and were gratified. He was permitted to return to 
his beloved home and flock in safety, and continued his pastoral labors almost 
nine years longer. Finall}^, on the 7th of June, 1852, that eminently great and 
good man died, at the age of a little more than eighty years. He had been a 
distinguished preacher for the long period of sixty years. He was a vigorous 
yet generous polemic, a pleasing and voluminous writer, and an eloquent speaker. 
His thoughts, occasionally expressed in verse, exhibit many beautiful specimens 
of genuine poetry. 



320 STEPHEN HOPKINS. 



STEPHEN HOPKINS 

"VfEXT to Doctor Franklin, Stephen Hopkins, of Rhode Island, was the oldest 
l\ member of the Continental Congress, who signed the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. He was born in that portion of the town of Providence now called 
Scituate, on the Vth of March, 1707. The opportunities at that time and place 
for acquiring an education were few and weak, and Hopkins became a self- 
taught man in the truest sense of the term. He was a farmer until the age of 
twenty-five years, when he commenced mercantile business in Providence. The 
following year he was chosen to represent Scituate in the Rhode Island legis- 
lature, and was annually rejlected until 1738. He resumed his scat there in 
1741, and was made Speaker of the House. From that time until 1751, he was 
almost every year a member and the Speaker of the lower House. In the latter 
year he was chosen chief justice of the colony. 

Mr. Hopkins was a delegate from Rhode Island in the first colonial conven- 
tion, held at Albany, in 1754,' and two years afterward he was elected governor 
of Rhode Island. That position he held, with but a single interruption, until 
1767 ; and he was very efficient in promoting the enlistment of volunteeis in his 
province, for the expeditions against the French and Indians. He even took a 
captain's commission, and placed himself at the head of a volunteer corps, in 
1757, but a change in events rendered their services unnecessary, and they were 
disbanded. When the quarrel with the mother country commenced, Governor 
Hopkins took a decided stand in favor of the colonists; and officially and un- 
officially he labored incessantly to promote a free and independent spirit among 
his countrymen. A proof of his love of justice, as well as a love of liberty, is 
found in the fact that he endeavored to procure legislative enactments in favor 
of the emancipation of slaves in Rhode Island, and he actually gave freedom to 
all owned by himself When, in 1774, a general Congress was proposed. Gov- 
ernor Hopkins warmly advocated the measure, and was chosen one of the dele- 
gates for Rhode Island. At the same time he held the important offices of chief 
justice of the province and representative in its Assembly. In 1775, he was a 
member of the Committee of Public Safety, in Rhode Island, and was again 
elected to Congress. There he advocated political independence ; and in the 
Sunnner of 1776, he affixed his remarkable signature'^ to the noble manifesto 
which declared it. 

Mr, Hopkins was elected to Congress, for the last time, in 1778, and was one 
of the committee who perfected the Articles of Confederation for the government 
of the United States, then fighting under one banner, for independence. He was 
then more than seventy years of age, yet he was actively engaged in the duties 
of almost every important conmiittee while he held his seat in Congress. He re- 
tired in 1780, and then withdrew from public life to enjoy repose and indulge in 
Lis favorite study of the exact sciences. He was a distinguished mathematician, 
and rendered efficient service to scientific men in observing the transit of Venus, 
in 1769.3 But his season of earthly repose and happiness was short. The 
Patriot and Sage went down into the grave on the 19th of July, 1785, in the 
seventy-eighth year of his age. Through life he had been a constant attendant 
of the religious meetings of Friends, or Quakers, and was ever distinguished 
among men as a sincere Christian. 

1. See sketch of Dr. Franklin. 

2. It is remarkable because of its evidence that his hand trembled excessively. That tremulousness 
is not attributable, as might be suspected of a less bold man, to fear inspired by the occasion, but by a 
malady known a^ shaking pal-y, whh which he had been troubled many years. I have a document 
before me, signed by him in 1761. Ilis signature at that time betrays the same unsteadiness of hand, 
though not in the same degree as in 1776. 3. See sketches of Winthrop and Rittenhouse. 



ALBEET GALLATIN. 821 



ALBKRT GALLATIN. 

DURING the most important period ia tlie progress of our Republic after its 
permanent organization, in 1789, Albert Gallatin, a native of Geneva, 
Switzerland, was an active, useful, and highly patriotic citizen and public officer. 
He was born on the 29th of January, 1761. His family connections were of the 
highest respectability. Among these was the celebrated M. Neckcr and his 
equally-distinguished daughter, Madame de Stael. His father, who died when 
Albert was four years of age, was then a councillor of state. At a proper age 
Albert was placed in theUniversity of Geneva, where he was graduated in 1779. 
He had early felt and manifested a zeal for republican institutions, and declining 
the commission of a lieutenant-colonel in the service of one of the German sov- 
ereigns, he came to America, in 1780, when only nineteen years of age. In 
November of that year he entered the public service of his adopted country, by 
taking command of a small fort at Machiiis, Maine, which was garrisoned by 
volunteers and Indians. At the close of the war he taught the French language 
in Harvard University, for awhile. Having received iiis patrimony fom Europe, 
in 1784, he purchased lands in Virginia. He afterward established himself on 
the banks of the Monongahela, iu Pennsylvania, where his talents were soon 
brought into requisition. He was a member of the convention to revise the 
constitution of Pennsylvania, in 1789, and for two succeeding j-^ears he was rep- 
resentative of the State legislature. In that body those financial abilities, 
which afterward rendered him eminent in the administration of the national 
treasury, were manifested. In 1793, he was elected to a seat in the Senate of 
the United States, but, by a strictly party vote, he was excluded from it on the 
ground of ineligibility, because nine years had not elapsed since his naturaliza- 
tion in Virginia.' He was immediately elected a member of the House of 
Representatives, where he was confessedly the Republican leader, and was re- 
garded as one of the most logical debaters and soundest statesmen in that body. 

In 1801, President Jefferson appointed Mr. Gallatin Secretary of the Treasurj-. 
He exercised the functions of that office with rare ability, during the whole of 
Jefferson's administration, and a part of Madison's, until 1813, when he went to 
St. Petersburg, as one of the envoys extraordinary of the United States, to nego- 
tiate with Great Britain under the mediation of Russia.2 He was appointed one 
of the commissioners who negotiated a treaty of peace with Great Britain, at 
Ghent, in 1814; and early the following year he assisted in forming a commer- 
cial treaty with the same power. From 1816 until 1823, Mr. Gallatin was res- 
ident minister of the United States at the French court, and in the meanwhile 
had been employed on extraordinary missions to the Netherlands and to Great 
Britain. In these diplomatic services he was ever skilful and always vigilant iu 
guarding the true interests of his country. Other official stations had been 
proffered him, while he was abroad. President Madison invited him to become 
his Secretary of State, or Prime Minister; and President Monroe offered him a 
place in his cabinet, as Secretary of the Navy. He also declined the nomination 
of Vice-President of the United States which the Democratic party offered him, 
in 1824. 

Mr. Gallatin returned home, in 1828, and became a resident of New York city, 
where he took an active interest in all matters pertaining to the public good. 
In 1831, he wrote the memorial to Congress of tlie Free-Trade Convention, and 
from that time until 1 839, he gave a noble example of the true method of bank- 
ing, while he was President of the National Bank. He was one of the founders, 

1. See clause 3, section 3, article I. of ihe Constitution of the United States. 

2. See sketches of John Quincy Adams and James A. Bayard. 



322 DAVID WOOSTER. 



and first president of the council of the New York University. At the time of 
his death ho was President of the New Xork Historical Society, and also of the 
American Ethnological Society, of which he was chief founder. A few days 
before his death he was elected one of the first members of the Smithsonian In- 
stitute. His departure occurred at his residence at Astoria, Long Island, on the 
12th of August, 1849, at the age of more than eighty-eight years. 



DAVID WOOSTER. 

FOR almost fourscore years the grave of one of America's best heroes was al- 
lowed to remain unhonored by a memorial-stone, until tradition had almost 
forgotten the hallowed spot. That hero was David Woostcr, who lost his life in 
the defence of the soil of his native State against tliat ruthless invnder. General 
Tryon. He was born at Stratford, Connecticut, on the 2d of March, 1710, and 
was graduated at Yale College, in 1738. When war between England and 
Spain broke out the following year, he entered the provincial army as a lieuten- 
ant, and was soon afterward promoted to the captaincy of a "V'crsel built and 
armed by the colony as a guarda costa, or coast-guard. In 1740, he married 
Miss Clapp, daughter of the President of Yale College; and, in 1745, we observe 
his first movements in military life as a captain in Colonel Burr's regiment in the 
expedition against Louisburg. From Cape Breton he went to Europe in com- 
mand of a cartel-ship.-^ But he was not permitted to land in France, and he 
sailed for England, where he was received with great honor. He was presented 
to the king, became a favorite at court, and was made a captain in the regular 
service, under Sir "William Peppcrcll. When the French and Indian war in 
America broke out, he was commissioned a provincial colonel by the governor 
of Connecticut, and was finally promoted to brigadier-general. Ho was in serv- 
ice to the end of that war; and when, in 1775, the revolutionary fires kindled 
into a flame, he was found ready to battle manfully for his country in its struggle 
for freedom. He was with Arnold and Allen at the capture of Ticonderoga; and 
when the Continental army was organized, a few weeks later, ho received the 
appointment of brigadier-general, third in rank. He was in command in Canada, 
in the Spring of 1770 ; and soon after his return to Connecticut, he was appointed 
first major-general of the militia of that State. In that cnpacity he was actively 
engaged when Tryon invaded the State, in the Spring of 1777, and penetrated 
to and burned Danbury.. JSTear Eidgefield he led a body of militia in pursuit of 
the invader, and there, in a v/arm engagement, on Sunday, the 27th of April, he 
was fatally wounded by a musket-ball. He was conveyed to Danbury on a 
litter, where he lived long enough for his wife and children to arrive from New 
Haven, and soothe his dying hours. Ho expired on the 2d of May, 1777, at tl.e 
age of sixty-seven years, and was interred in the village burying-ground. Con- 
gress ordered a monument to be erected to his memory, but that act of justice 
has never been accoiuplished by the Federal government. The legislature of 
Connecticut finally resolved to erect a memorial; and in April, 1854, the corner- 
stone of a monument was laid, with imposing ceremonies.2 On opening the 
grave, the remains of the hero's epaulettes and plume, and the fatal huHei," weTe 
found among his bones. 

1. A vessel commissioned in time of war to carry proposals between belligerent powers. It claims the 
sarjo respect as a flag sent from one army to anotiier. 

2. On that occasion the Honorable Henry C. Deming pronounced an elsquent oration, which ^as 
cubseqnently published in pamphlet form. 



THOMAS MACDONOUGH. 



323 




THOMAS MACDONOUaH. 

ON the very day when Washington resigned his miUtary commission into the 
custody of Congress, from whom he had received it, a future American 
naval hero was born in Newcastle county, Delaware. It was on the 23d of 
December, 1783, and that germ of a hero was Thomas Macdonough, At the 
age of fifteen years he obtained a midshipman's warrant, and in the war with 
Tripoli he was distinguished for bravery. He was one of the daring men selected 
by Decatur to assist him in burning the Philadelphia frigate,' and he partook of 
the honors of that brilliant exploit. When war with Great Britain was proclaimed 
in 1812, Macdonough held a lieutenant's commission, having received it in Feb- 
ruary, 1807. He was ordered to service on Lake Champlain, and in July, 1813, 
he was promoted to master-commandant. There was very little for him to do, 
in that quarter, for some time, and he became restive in comparative idleness. 
But opportunity for action came at last, and .he gladly accepted and nobly im- 
proved it. The war in Europe having been suspended, early in 1814, by the 
abdication of Napoleon and the capture of Paris by the allied armies, the Britisli 
forces in America were largely augmented. Quite a strong army, under Sir 

1. See sketch of Decatur. 



824 SAMUEL SMITH. 



George Prevost, invaded New York from the St. Lawrence ; and a fleet, under 
Commodore Downie, sailed up Lake Champlain to co5perate with the land forces. 
They were called "the flower of Wellington's army, and the cream of Nelson's 
marines." General Macomb was in command of a small land force, composed 
chiefly of local militia, and Macdonough had a little squadron of four ships and 
ten galleys, with an aggregate c^ eighty-six guns. Such was the force which 
stood in the way of the sanguine invader. On the 11th of September, 1814, the 
British land and naval forces both approached. The conflict was short but de- 
cisive. Macdonough, by superior nautical skill and dexterity in the management 
of guns, soon caused the British flag to fall, when Prevost, in dismay, hastily 
retreated, leaving victory with the Americans on both land and water.' Tho 
victory was hailed with great joy throughout the country, and Macdonough's 
fame was proclaimed every where, in oration and in song. Congress awarded 
him a gold commemorative medal, and gave him the commission of a post cap- 
tain. Other substantial rewards were bestowed. The State of New York gave 
him one thousand acres of land; that of Vermont, two hundred acres; and the 
cities of New York and Albany each gave him a lot of ground. At about tho 
close of the war, Commodore Macdonough's health gave way, yet he lived for 
more than ten years with the tooth of consumption undermining his citadel of 
life. He died on the 10th of November, 1825, at the age of about forty-two 
years. He was exemplary in every relation of life, and had but few of the com- 
mon faults of humanity. His bravery was born of true courage, not of mere 
intrepidity, and he never quailed in the face of most imminent danger.2 



SAMUEL SMITH. 

SAMUEL SMITH, the "hero of Fort Mifflin," lived more than sixty years after 
the achievements there, which won for him that appropriate title. He was 
a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he was born on the 27 th of 
January, 1752. His father was a distinguished public man, first in Pennsylvania 
and then in Maryland, Samuel's education commenced at Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
vania, and was completed at an academy in Elkton, Maryland, after his father 
made Baltimore his residence. At the age of fourteen years he entered his 
father's counting-house as a clerk, remained there five j^ears, and then, in 1772, 
departed for Havre as supercargo in one of his father's vessels. After travelling 
extensively on the Continent, he returned home, and found his countrymen in 
the midst of the excitements of the opening of the revolutionary hostihties. The 

1. When the British squadron appeared off Cumberland-head, Macdonough knelt on the deck of the 
{Saratoga (his flag-ship), in the midst of his men, and prayed to the God of Battles- for aid. A curious 
incident occurred during the engagement that soon followed. A British ball demolished a hen-coop on 
board the Saratoga. A cock, released from his prison, flew into the rigging, and crowed lustily, at the 
same time flapping his wings with triumphant vehemence. The seamen regarded the event as a good 
omen, and they fought like tigers, while the cock cheered them on with its crowings, until the British 
flag was struck and the firing ceased. 

2. On one occasion, while first-lieutenant of a vessel, lying in the harbor of Gibraltar, an armed boat 
from a British man-of-war boarded an American brig anchored near, in the absence of the commander, 
and carried off a seaman. Macdonough manned a gig, and with an inferior force, made chase and re- 
captured the seaman. The captain of the man-of-war came aboard Macdonough's vessel, and in a great 
rage asked him how he dared to take the man from his majesty's boat. " He was an American seaman, 
and I did my duty," was the reply. " I'll bring my ship along side, and sink you," angrily cried tho 
Briton. " That you can do," coolly responded Macdonough, " but while she swims, that man you will 
not have." The captain, roaring with rage, said, " Supposing /had been in that boat, would yon have 
dared to commit such an act?" " I should have made the attempt, sir," was the calm reply. " What !" 
shouted the captain, " if I were to impress men fiom that brig, would you interfere?" " You have only 
to try it, sir," was Macdonough's tantalizing reply. The haughty Briton was over-matched, and he did 
not attempt to try the metal of such a brave young man. There were canuon balls in his coolness, full 
•f danger. 



JEHUDI ASHMUN. 32^ 



battles at Lexington, Concord, and Breed's Hill, had been fought. Fired with 
patriotic zeal, young Smith sought to serve his country in the army; and in 
January, 1776,"he obtained a captain's commission in Colonel Smallwood's regi- 
ment. He was soon afterward promoted to the rank of major ; and early in 
1777, he received a lieutenant-colonel's commission. In that capacity he served 
with distinction in the battle of Brandywine, and a few weeks later won unfad- 
ing laurels for his gallant defence of Fort Mifflin, a little below Philadelphia, of 
wiiich he was commander. There, for seven weeks, he sustained a siege b}^ a 
greatly superior force, and abandoned the fort only when the defences were no 
longer tenable. For his services there. Congress voted him a sword, and the 
country rang with his praises. He afterward suffered with the army at Valley 
Forge, and fought on the plains of Monmouth. 

At the close of the war. Colonel Smith was appointed a brigadier-general of 
militia, and commanded the Maryland troops under General Lee, in quelHng the 
"Whiskey Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania. Ho was active in support 
of Washington's administration throughout; and, in 1793, he was elected to 
represent the Baltimore district in the Federal Congress, where he remained for 
ten consccuti\'0 years. He held the commission of major-general of militia dur- 
ing the war of 1812-15, and was active in measures to repel invading Britons, 
atBaltimoro, in 1814. Two years afterward he was again elected to Congress. 
and served in the House of Representatives for six years. He was also a mem- 
ber of the United States Senate for many years. In 1836, during a fearful riot 
in Baltimore, his military services were again brought into requisition, and by 
his prompt efforts the disturbance was soon quelled. The mob had defied the 
civil authority, and wore wantonly destroying property, when the aged general 
appeared in their midst, bearing the American flag, and calling upon peaceably- 
disposed citizens to rally and assist him in sustaining law and order. That 
result was soon accomplished. In the Autumn of the same year, when at the 
age of more than eighty-four years, he was elected mayor of Baltimore, by an 
almost unanimous vote. He held that office by reelection untfl his death, which 
occurred on the 22d of April, 1839, in the eighty-seventh year of his age. 



jp:htjdi ashmun. 

THE first agent of the American Colonization Society, empbyed to plant a set- 
tlement of free negroes in the land of their fathers, was Jehudi Ashmun, 
the son of pious parents who resided near the western shore of Lake Charaplain, 
in the State of New York. In the town of Champlain he was born, in April, 
1794, and was graduated at Burlington College, in 1816. He commenced prep- 
arations for tlie ministry in the tlieological seminary at Bangor, in Maine, but 
soon made his residence in the District of Columbia, became attached to the 
Protestant Episcopal Cliurch there, and took a zealous part in the early efforts 
to found a colony of free blacks in Africa. His zeal and usefulness were appre- 
ciated by the American Colonization Society; and, in 1822, he was appointed 
to take charge of a reenforcement for their infant settlement in Africa. He be- 
came the general agent there, and it was necessary for him to perform the duties 
of legislator, soldier, and engineer. Afflictions fell upon him at the beginning. 
His wife died; and within three months after his arrival, wlien the whole force 
of the colonists consisted of only thirty-five men and boys, lie was attacked by 
armed savages. They were repulsed, but in December they returned Avith 
greatly increased numbers, and utter extermination of the little colony seemed 



326 JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. 

certain. Again the savages were repulsed, and thoroughly defeated. For six 
years Mr. Ashmun labored faithfully there, with Lott Gary,' in layiug the found- 
ation of the Republic of Liberia, but the malaria of the lowlands made great 
inroads upon his health, month after month, until he was compelled to return to 
America to recruit. His departure was a great grief to the colonists, who now 
numbered twelve hundred souls. He felt that the hand of decay was upon him, 
and he expressed a belief that he should never return. Like the friends of 
Paul, they kissed him, " Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, 
that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship."- 
Men, women, and children, parted with him at the shore, with tears. His an- 
ticipations were realized, for on the 25th of August, 1828, only a fortnight after 
his arrival at New Haven, he departed for the "happy land," at the age of 
thirty-four years. There is a handsome monument to his memory in a cemetery 
in New Haven. 



JOHN CALDWKLL CALHOUN. 

BY far the most profound, consistent, and popular statesman that South Caro- 
lina has ever produced, was John C. Calhoun, whose name will ever be 
associated in history with the institution of Slavery as its most cordial and honest 
defender. He will be remembered, too, as an uncorrupt patriot, and a states- 
man above reproach. That idol of the Carolinians was the son of Patrick Calhoun, 
an Irishman of great respectability, who took front rank among the patriots in 
"Western Carolina during the War for Independence. John was born in Abbe-'* 
ville district, South Carolina, on the 18th of March, 1782, His mother was a 
Virginia lady of great worth, and to her care the moulding of the young mind 
and heart of the future statesman was chiefly intrusted. Although he was a 
great reader, from childhood, yet, until late in youthhood, he had acquired very 
little education from systematic instruction. Under the charge of his brother-in- 
iaw. Dr. Waddel, of Columbia county, GTeorgia, he was prepared for college, and 
entered Yale, as a student, in 1802. His progress there was exceedingly rapid. 
His genius beamed forth daily, raor§ and more ; and, in 1 804, he was graduated 
with the highest honors of the institution. President Dwight admired him for 
his many manly virtues; and on one occasion he remarked, "That boy, Calhoun, 
has talent enough to be President of the United States, and will become one 
yet, I confidently predict." 

For three years subsequent to his leaving college, Calhoun studied law, in 
Litchfield, Connecticut, and then entered upon its practice in his native district. 
He was elected to a seat in the legislature of South Carolina, the following year 
[1808], and after serving two terms there, he was chosen to represent his district 
in the Federal Congress. At that time a war spirit was kindling throughout the 
nation, and Mr. Calhoun entered Congress when his fine abilities were most 
needed. He was a staunch republican : and during his career of six years in the 
House of Representatives, he was an eloquent and consistent supporter of Pres- 
ident Madison's administration. Mr. Monroe so highly appreciated his abilities, 
that when he took the presidential chair, in 1817, he called Mr. Calhoun to his 
cabinet as Secretary of War. In that capacity his great administrative abilities, 
so early discovered by President Dwight, were daily manifested, and he per- 
formed the duties of his office with signal fidelity and energy, during the whole 
eight years of Mr. Monroe's administration. He was elected Vice-President of 



1. See sketch of Lott Gary. 2. Acts xx. 38. 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. 



327 




^^^^^^,.^-x^-r^^^^-L^ 



the United Stares, in 1825, and held that position more than sis years, having 
been reelected, with President Jackson, in 1828. In 1831, when Robert Y. 
Hajaie left the Senate to become governor of South Carolina^ Mr. Calhoun was 
chosen his successor, and resigned the vice-presidency. At the end of the term 
for which he was chosen, he retired to private life, and sought repose in the 
bosom of his family. In 1843, he was called to the cabinet of President Tyler, 
as Secretary of State ; and, in 1845, he was again chosen United States Senator, 
by the legislature of South Carolina. He continued in that exalted position 
until his death, which occurred at Washington city, on the 31st of March, 1850, 
at the age of sixty-eight years. 

Few men have exerted a more powerful and controlling sway over the opinions 
of vast masses of men, than Mr. Calhoun, for his views on several topics coin- 
cided with those of the great majority of the Southern people ; and he was known 
to be inflexibly honest and true, and eminently reliable. No man of his faith 
ever doubted that leader any more than his creed. As a statesman, he was full 
of forecast, acute in judgment, and comprehensive in his general views. He was 
eminently conservative in many things, and by precept and example, recom- 
mended " masterly inactivity " as preferable to mere impulsive and effervescent 
movements. When intelligence came, in 1848, that Louis Philippe was driven 
from Paris and the French Republic liad been proclaimed, it was proposed, in 
the United States Senate, that our government should acknowledge the new 



823 HENRY DEARBOEN. 



order of things. " Wait until it becomes a Republic," were the words of cautious 
wisdom uttered by Senator Calhoun. We Juive waited many years, and France 
is yet [18G9] ruled by an usurper. Daniel Webster said of Mr. Calhoun, in the 
Senate of the United States, " We shall hereafter, I am sure, indulge in it as a 
grateful recollection, that we have lived in his age, that we have been his con- 
teaiporaries, that we have seen him, and heard him, and known him." 



HENRY DEARBORN. 

WHEN the government of the United States declared war against Great 
Britain, in 1812, the chief command of the army then authorized to be 
raised, was given to Henry Dearborn, a meritorious soldier of the War for Inde- 
pendence. He was born in Hampton, New Hampshire, in March, 1*?51, He 
studied the science of medicine with Doctor Jackson, of Po: tsmouth, and com- 
menced its practice there in 1772, As the storm-clouds of the impending Revo- 
lution gathered, he took an active part in politics on the side of the patriots, and 
gave much attention to military affairs. When, on the 20th of April, 1775, in- 
telligence reached Portsmouth of the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord the 
preceding day, young Dearborn marched in haste to Cambridge, at the head of 
sixty volunteers. He soon returned to New Hamj^shire, was elected a captain 
in the regiment of Colonel Stark, enlisted his company, and was again at Cam- 
bridge on the 15th of May. In tlie memorable battle on Breed's Hill, on tho 
I7th of June following. Captain Dearborn behaved gallantly; and in September 
ensuing, he accompanied General Arnold in his perilous march acrots the wilder' 
ness from the Kennebec to tho St. Lawrence. Famine, with the keenness of a- 
wolfs appetite, fell upon tliem, and a fine dog belonging to Captain Dearborn, 
that accompanied them, was used for food. Even moose-skin breeches wera 
boUed: the extracted mucilage served as soup, and the hide was roasted and 
eaten. Many died from hunger and fatigue, and Captain Dearborn himself was 
left ill of a fever in the hut of a farmer, on the banks of the Chaudiere, without 
a physician. He slowly recovered, joined the army at Quebec, in December, 
participated in the siege and assault of that city, under Montgomery, and was 
made a prisoner. He was permitted to return home on parole the following 
May. His exchange was not effected until March, 1777, when he was appointed 
major in Scammell's regiment; and was at Ticonderoga, in May following. In 
the eventful conflicts at Saratoga, in the ensuing Autumn, he gallantly partic- 
ipated, and shared in the honors of the capture of Burgoyne. General Gates 
gave him special notice in his despatch to Congress, He was promoted to lieu- 
tenant-colonel in Cilley's regiment, and in that capacity he participated in the 
gallant c!iarge at Monmouth, after Lee's retreat, that broke the power of the 
British force. 

Lieutenant-colonel Dearborn accompanied General Sullivan in his expedition 
against the Senecas, in 1779, In 1780, he again became attached to Colonel Scam- 
mell's regiment, and on the deatli of that officer during the siege of Yorktown, 
Dearborn succeeded to his rank and command. After that event he was on 
duty at the frontier post of Saratoga, under the immediate command of Lord 
Stirling, and there, at the close of the war, his military services in the Continental 
army ended. He settled upon the banks of the Kennebec, in 1784, and engaged 
in agricultural pursuits. In 1789, Washington appointed him marshal of the 
District of Maine ; and twice he was elected to a seat in Congress from that 



ABIEL HOLMES. 329 



territory. Mr. Jefferson called him to his cabinet as Secretary of "War. in 1801, 
and he discharged the duties of that office with great ability and fidelity, during 
Jefferson's entire administration of eight years. On retiring, in 1809, President 
Madison gave liim the lucrative office of collector at the port of Boston. In 
February, 1812, when war with Great Britain appeared inevitable. Colonel Dear- 
born was commissioned senior major-general of the army ; and the following 
Spring he was in chief command at the capture of York (now Toronto), in Can- 
ada, where General Pike was killed. He continued in command, for awhile 
longer, when the President recalled him on the ground of ill health, and he 
assumed command of the military district cf New York city. He retired to 
private life, in 1815, where he remained until 1822, when President Monroe ap- 
pointed him minister to Portugal. At his own request he was permitted to re- 
turn home, after an absence of two years, and resided most of the time in Boston, 
until his death. That event occurred at the house of his son, in Eoxbury, Mas- 
sachusetts, on the Gth of June, 1829, at the age of seventy-eight years. 



ABIEL HOLMES. 

THE faithful annalist is a nation's benefactor ; and it may be truthfully said ^o 
all such chroniclers, as the poet said to the historian of Rome — 

" And Rome shall owe 
For her memorial to your learned pen 
More than to all those fading monuments, 
Built with the riches of the spoiled world." 

In this category of benefactors, Abiel Holmes, D.D., holds a conspicuous place, 
and Americans should cherish his memory with pride and deepest affection. His 
Annals of America, in two volumes, is one of the most valuable historical pub- 
lications ever issued from the press, as a work of reference. And as an Annalist 
he is best known to the world. 

Abiel Holmes was born at "Woodstock, Connecticut, in December, 1763. He 
was graduated at Yale College at the age of twenty years, and went immediately 
to South Carolina as an instructor in a private family. He had received religious 
impressions at an early age, and these deepened with the lapse of years. The 
gospel ministry opened to his mind a field of great usefulness, and he entered 
upon it as a pastor of a church at Midway, Georgia, in the Autumn of 1785. 
There he remained until the Summer of 1791, when he visited New England, 
and accepted an invitation to become pastor of the first Congregational Church 
at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was ever studious, and Biography and History 
liad great charms for him. In 1798, he wrote and published a Life of President 
Stiles, of Yale College; and, in 1805, his Annals of America was first published. 
An edition was printed in England, in 1813; and, in 1829, a much-improved 
edition, in which the record is continued until 1827, was published at Cambridge. 
"With this edition of Holmes' Annals^ the Am.erican Register from ]826 to 1830 
inclusive, and the American Almanac from 1830 to the present time, a library 
has an unbroken record of events in the United States from the earliest settle- 
ments. In addition to his works just mentioned, Dr. Holmes published about 
thirty pamphlets, consisting chiefly of sermons and historical disquisitions. He 
died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 4th day of June, 1837, at the age of 
almost seventy -four years. 



330 PHILIP SYNG PHYSIC. 



PHILIP SYNG PHYSIC, 

PHILIP SYN"G PHYSIC has been appropriately called the Washington— the 
Hero and Sage — of the medical profession, because, always cautious, he 
was nevertheless ready for any emergency, and his great mind never failed in 
its resources amidst the most comphcated difficulties. That eminent physician 
was born in Philadelphia, on the 7th of July, 1768. His father had been keeper 
of the great seal of the colony of Pennsylvania ; and, prior to the Revolution, ho 
had charge of the estates of the Penn family, as confidential agent. At the ago 
of eleven years, Philip was placed under the cliarge of Robert Proud, principal 
of an academy that belonged to the Society of Friends, and in due time entered 
the University of Pennsylvania, as a student. Ho was graduated in 1785, and 
immediately commenced tlie study of medicine with the distinguished Professor 
Kuhn. After attending a course of medical lectures at the university, he em- 
barked for Europo, in the Autumn of 1788, in company with his father, who, 
tlirough influential friends in England, procured the admission of Philip to the 
friendship and private instruction of the eminent Dr. John Hunter. No man 
ever had a better opportunity for acquiring a thorough knowledge of the 
healing art, and of practical surgery, than young Physic, and he nobly improved 
it to his own boneflt and that of his race. His talents were so conspicuous, that 
on the earnest recommendation of Dr. Hunter, Pliysic was appointed house sur- 
geon to St. George's Hospital, in 1790, to serve one year. At the close of the 
term he received a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons, in London, and 
Dr. Hunter offered him a professional partnership. The 3'oung man had resolved 
to make his native city the chief theatre of his career, and after remaining with 
Hunter during 1791, he went to Edinburgh, studied and observed diligently 
there, in the University and in the Royal Infirmary, obtained the degree of 
M.D., in May, 1792, and in September, returned to America. 

Tiuis prepared. Dr. Physic entered upon the practice of his profession, in 
Philadelphia. In 1793, tlie yellow fever tested his skill, moral courage, and 
bDuevolence, to the utmost, and all appeared eminently conspicuous. The fol- 
lowing year he was chosen to be one of the surgeons of the Pennsylvania Hos- 
pital; and, when the 3^ellow fever again prevailed, in 1798, his services were of 
the greatest importance. In 1801, he was appointed surgeon extraordinary to 
tlie Philadelphia Almshouse Infirmary. The following year, on the earnest re- 
quest of a number of medical students, he delivered a course of lectures on Sur- 
gery. They were exceedingly popular, and students came from all parts of tho 
country to "enjoy his instructions. In 1805, a professorship of surgery, distinct 
from anatomy, was instituted in the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Physic 
was called to that chair. In fact it was created for him. He performed tho 
duties of that station in a higlily satisfactory manner, until 1819, when he was 
transferred to the chair of anatomy, in tho same institution, on the death of its 
incumbent (his nephew), John Syng Dorsey. Year after year he continued his 
lectures to great numbers of medical students, notwithstanding his extensive 
practice and college duties made his labors very great. 

In 1821, Dr. Physic was appointed consulting surgeon to the Philadelphia 
Institution for the Blind; and, in 1824, he was elected president of the Phila- 
delphia Medical Society, a station which he filled with great dignity until his 
death. In 1825, the French Royal Academy of Medicine made him an honorary 
member of that institution, the first dignity of the kind ever received by an 
American. He was also made an honorary fellow of the Royal Medical and 
Chirurgical Society of London. In 1831, ftiiUng health caused Dr. Physic to 
resign his professorship in the University, when he was immediately elected 



JOHN" SEVIER. 33 



Emeritus Professor of Surgery and Anatomy, in that institution. His physical 
System gradually gave way under his incessant professional toil, and on the 1 5th 
of December, 1837, that eminent surgeon expired in Philadelphia, at the age of 
sixty-nine years. The immediate cause of his death was hydrothorax. Besides 
his lectures. Dr. Physic wrote but little. lie labored intensely, in his profession, 
and left authorship to others. 



JOHN SEVIKR. 

SOOiSr after the return of peace when the War for Independence had ceased, 
the hardy mountaineers of the extreme western portions of North Caro- 
lina, established a separate government, and, in honor of Dr. Pranklin, called 
the new State Feanklaxd. A brave mihtia officer of the Revolution was chosen 
governor, but his rule and the new State were of short duration. That officer 
was John Sevier, a descendant of an ancient French f;in:ily, the original orthog- 
raphy of which was Xavier. He was born on the banks of the Shenandoah, in 
Virginia, about the year 1740. He was a bold and fearless youth, and was 
engaged much in athletic exercises during the earlier years of his manhood. In 
1769, he accompanied an exploring party to East Tennessee, and settled on the 
Ilolston river, with his father and brother. There he assisted in erecting Fort 
Watauga, and was afterward made the commander of the little garrison, 
ivith the commission of captain. The Cherokees were then prowling around, 
with hostile intentions, British emissaries having excited them against the col- 
onists. One pleasant morning in June, 1776, the gallant captain saw a young 
lady running with the speed of a doe, toward the fort, pursued by a party of 
Cherokees under " Old Abraham," one of their most noted chiefs. With a single 
bound she leaped the palisades, and fell into the arms of Captain Sevier. It was 
a lucky leap for Catherine Sherrill, for she was caught by a husband, unto whom 
she bore ten children. 

Captain Sevier was with Evan Shelby at the battle of Point Pleasant, in 1774. 
During the first five years of the war he was an active Whig partisan on the 
mountain frontiers of the Carolinas ; and, in 1780, when Corn wallis was pene- 
trating toward the hills, he held the commission of colonel. He greatly distin- 
guished himself at the battle on King's Mountain, in October of that year, and 
also at Musgrove's Mills. The following year he quieted hostile Indians among 
the mountains, by a severe chastisement. At tlie close of the war he was com- 
missioned a brigadier; and ho was so much beloved by the people, that on the 
formation of the State of Fr ankl and, above alluded to, lie was elected governor 
hy unanimous acclamation. He was so often engaged in conferences with the 
Indians, that they gave him a name which signified treaty-maker. When Ten- 
nessee was organized, and admitted into the Union as an independent State, 
Sevier was elected its first governor. In 1811, he was elected to a seat in Con- 
gress, and was reeieoted in 1813. He was a firm supporter of President Madi- 
son's administration, and was appointed an Indian commissioner for his State 
and the adjoining territories. While engaged in the duties of his office near Fort 
Decatur, on the east side of the Tallapoosa river, he died, on the 24th of Septem- 
ber, 1815, at the age of about seventy-five years. There he was buried with 
the honors of war, under the direction of thelate General Gaines. No stone, it 
is said, identifies his grave ; but in a cemetery at Nashville, a handsome marble 
cenotaph has been erected to his memory, by "An admirer of Patriotism and 
Merit unrequited." 



832 



ISABELLA GRAHAM. 




ISABELLA GRAHAM. 

EARTH hath its angels, bright and lovely. They often walk in the garden of 
humanity unobserved. Their foot-prints are pearly with Heaven's choicest 
blessings ; fragrant flowers spring up and bloom continually in their presence, 
and the birds of paradise warble unceasingly in the branches beneath which 
they recline. They are born of true religion in the heart. Their creed comes 
down from heaven, and is as broad as humanity; their hope is a golden chain of 
promises suspended from the throne of infinite goodness; their example is a 
preacher of righteousness co- working with the Great Redeemer. 

Of these blessed ones of earth, was Isabella Graham, a native of Lanarkshire, 
Scotland, where she was born on the 29th of July, 1742. Her maiden name 
was Marshall, and during her earlier years her father occupied the estate, once 
the residence of the renoAvned William Wallace. Isabella was early trained to 
physical activity, and was blessed with a superior education, which afterward 
became her life-dependence. Her moral and religious culture kept pace with 
her intellectual improvement, and under the teaching of Dr. Witherspoon (after-^ 
ward president of the college at Princeton, New Jersey), she became a Christian 
professor at the age of seventeen years. 

Miss Marshall was married to Dr. John Graham, an array surgeon, in 1765, 
and the following year accompanied him to Canada, whither he was ordered to 
join his regiment. She was a resident of a garrison at Fort Niagara for several 
years, and just before the American Revolution broke out, she accompanied her 
husband to the Island of Antigua. Then the furnace of affliction was preparec? 
for her. First, intelligence came that her dear mother was buried. Soon after 
that two of her dear friends wore removed bv death : and in the Autunm ot 



ISABELLA GllAHAM. 333 



1774, her pxcolleat husband was taken from liei, after a few^ days' ill- 
nestJ, leaviutr her in a slran^e land, with tbr«^e infant daughteis. But 
she was not, ftif^-ndless. SIjp bad f'efily cas't her bread of benevolence upon 
the waters, and it returned to her by corresponcing bene vob nee, when 
it was m'^st needed. 

After gi ing birth to a son, Mrs. Graham returned to Scotland. Her 
agpd father bad become impoverish-*), an i was added to tbe dependants 
upon her effoits for a livelihaoJ. She ' p ne.l a s oall scbuol, and lived 
upon coarse and scanty food, made sw( . t bv the thought that ic v as 
earned for tl)0>e she loved. 01 1 acquaintances !imni»g i Oe ri^ii and gay 
passed tue hum bio v i low by, but ola friends, \^ i b b< arts in tbeir bands, 
assisted her lu estaldishiog a boardiug-scbnol in E iobufgb. God pros- 
pered her, and she dist«ii>uted Ireely of berliule iibuudaoce among tbe 
more n^edy. A tenth ( f all her earDinus sie regul Ji iy devoted to charily | 
a<'d hour after hour, ^hen the duties of her scho d h ;d cea-ed, that g -od 
and gentle creature would walk am iuir the p4Kr and destitute, in the 
lanes and alleys of the Scottish capital, <iisDeii«in-' ptiysical beneti«s and 
religious consolatious. Tborousihlv purified in ihe crucible of sorrow, 
hfr heart was ever alive with symoathv t >r suff -riusr buinquity, and that 
became the great conlrolliog emotion that shaped her labors. She often 
lent small sums of money toy »ung peis ne^ab ur enteringupon busioes'^, 
and would never receive interest, tor she c n-^i<lered tbelax:ury of doing 
good sufficient usury. She encouraged poi>r laboring people ro unite in 
creating a fund for mutual reliet in case of sicUot^ss, by a small deposit 
each week, and thus she founded Ibe "P-nny ISociety," out of which 
grew that excellent mstimtion, in Edinburgh, " The Society lor tlie Re- 
lief of the Destitute Sick." 

At tbe solicitation of Dr. Withertpoon, and of some friends in New 
Yt>rk, Mis. Graham came t ) America, io 1785; and in the Autunio or that 
year opened a school, wuh five pupils, in our commeicial m»:'tronolis. Be- 
fore the end of a m nth ihe numb r of her puniis had incieased to fitly, 
and tor thirteen v^ars she c ntiuiied that, v caii"n wirh increa&iog pros- 
perity. A L-reat blessing came to hr,iij 1795, when her sec nd daughter 
married the excellent Divie Bt-ibuue, an enterprising ytung nerchant 
of New Yolk, who became an earnest co-*erker iu the ea'ise she had 
espoused,! sorrow came a- ab ut the same lime, for herolf^est daughter 
was taken awaybvdea'h But the widow was not diverted from the 
path of Christian duty by piosot^nty roc adveisity. She walked daily 
among the poor, like a sweet angel, dispensing with bountiful h^ndibe 
bleosingsbe bad received from abo^e. At her ] onse, in 1706. a number 
of ladies formed t'^at noble iDStMntion, the Society for the Relief of Poor 
Widows ivith Children; and two years afttr ward she gave up her scbuul, 
went to reside with her daughters, and dedicated her time to the services 
of an abounding charily. We canno j follow ber in aU her ministrations 
publicaod p'ivate,f ^r they were asm anifobl as tbe hours of t>>edaT. Si'e 
was one of the promoters of the Orphan Asylum and the Magdalene Society 
She had printed and distributed pevera! ira«it-, bef ^rt^ ai.v >•< ciery f »l- 
the purpose was forme-l, which v^e^e calrMilated to excite fie oiii>iic 
symoitliy f ^r the destitute and sulFeting. She was activein triving n-ipti 
larity to Lancasterian scho Is for Ihe poor, and th«^ Sabba^h-«ebo d was 
her special delight. Every where, by i i/bt and bv dav^in the citv of hec 

1. Tliat eminent philanthropist (father of the ]ate Vrv. Dr. Bethnrr, rf "Brool^lvn). 
was also a native o' Scotland. r)PtVre anv trjiot ,'^ori'lv wns formed in fis conntrv, 
ho p inted 10,000 traet'a at his ov?n expei se. and distiii.uied Ihem "with hi-* own li.in'd. 
He al.'jo imported manv Bitdes fordistiilmlion snpT)orted one o- more Surdaj'-.^chools. 
and a Iways devoted a tenth of his gains to chaiitable and religious purposes. He died 
in 1824 



HENRY WHEATOK. 



adoption, that noble Sister of Charity might be mot, dispensing hei' blessings, 
and rewarded by the benedictions of the aMed.' Her last public labor was in 
forming a society for the promotion of industry among the poor. That was in 
the Spring of 1814, when the infirmities of health and age had shortened her 
journeys of love. On the 27th of July following, that feithful servant of the 
great Pattern of benevolence went home to receive her final reward, at the age 
of seventy-two years. 



HENRY WHEAT ON. 

THE most eminent American writer on International Law that has yet appeared, 
was Henry Wheaton, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, where ho was 
born in November, 1Y85. He entered Brown University at the age of thirteen 
years, and was graduated there in 1802. The law was his chosen profession, 
and he commenced its study under the direction of JSTathaniel Searle. After two 
years' close application, he went to France, became a welcome guest in the 
family of General Armstrong (then United States minister there), resided in 
Paris eighteen months in the earnest study of the French language, and then 
went to London and made himself thoroughly acquainted with tlio constitutional 
and international jurisprudence of Europe. On his return to Rhode Island he 
was admitted to the bar. In 1812, he made his residence in the city of New 
York, where he took a high position as a lawyer. The same year he assumed 
the editorial control of the National Advocate, and its columns abounded with 
able disquisitions on International Law, from his pen. The subject was of special 
current interest, for unsettled questions of that nature were some of the imme- 
diate causes of the war then in progress between the United States and Great 
Britain. Mr. Wheaton was also appointed a judge of the Marine Court, in the 
city of New York, the same year; and, in 1815, he relinquished his connection 
with the Kational Advocate. In May of that year he published his Digest relative 
to 3farine Captures, which attracted much attention. The same year he was 
appointed reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States, and performed 
the duties of that important station with signal ability until 1827, when he was 
appointed Charge d^ Affaires to Denmark, by President Adams. His reports 
were published in twelve volumes, and form an invaluable library of legal de- 
cisions. He was engaged in public life but once during his long connection with 
the Supreme Court. That service was performed in 1821, as a member of the 
convention that revised the Constitution of the State of New York. 

Mr, Wheaton was the first regular minister sent to Denmark by the United 
States. There he employed his leisure time in making diligent researches into 
Scandinavian literature ; and he published the result of his investigations in a 
volume entitled History of the Northmen. No diplomatic duty was neglected, by 
these researches, and his mission was performed to the entire satisfaction of his 
government. In 1830, he visited Paris, and was highly esteemed in diplomatic 
circles there, as well as in London, the following year. In 1836, President 
Jackson transferred Mr. Wheaton from Copenhagen to Berlin, and a few months 
afterward he was raised to the rank of minister plenipotentiary at the court of 

1. On one occasion, she was absent for some time on a visit to Boston, when, to the surprise of Mrs. 
Bethune, a great manv people called to inquire about her mother. She askert the reason of their nu- 
merous inquiries, and was told that they lived in the suburbs of the city, where she visited and relieved 
the sick, and comforted the poor. " We had missed her so long," one of them said, " that we were afraul 
she was sick. When she walks in our streets," she continued, " it was customary with us to go to the 
door and bless her as she i 



JAMES KENT. 835 



Prussia. There his services were of the greatest importance, and he stood, con- 
fessedly, at the head of American diplomacy in Europe. To him other American 
legations looked for counsel, and the various sovereigns of Europe held him in 
the highest esteem. In 1840, Mr. Wheatoii made a treaty with Hanover; and 
the same year he attended the conference' of representatives of twenty-seven 
German States, and there advanced the commercial interests of his country. 

Mr. Wheaton is known as one of the best writers on the law of nations, and 
his works, on that topic, are held in the same estimation, in the cabinets of Europe, 
as were those of G-rotius and Vattel before his day. lie wrote a Life of William 
Pinhney ; and in addition to his voluminous despatches on all sorts of subjects, 
ho delivered many discourses, some of which have been published in pamphlet 
fjrm. That skilful diplomatist, ripe scholar, accomplished author, and thorough 
gentleman, died at Roxbury, Massachusetts, on the 11th of March, 1848, at the 
age of sixty-three years. 



JAMES KENT. 

'* I've scanned the actions of his daily life 
Vv'^ith all the industrious malice of a foo ; 
And nothing meets mine eyes but deeds of honor." 

THESE words of Hannah More may justly be applied to the character of that 
brilliant light of the American judiciary, Chancellor Kent, for no jurist evef 
kid aside a more spotless ermine than he. He was born in the Fredericksburg 
precinct of Dutchess county (now Putnam county). New York, on the 31st of 
July, 17G3. At the age of five years he went to live with his maternal grand- 
father, at iSTorwalk, Connecticut, and remained there, engaged in preparatory 
studies, until 1771, when he entered Yale College, as a student. The war of 
the Revolution was then developing its worst features, for British, Hessians, and 
Tories were desolating various districts, by fire and plunder. For a time the 
students of the college were scattered ; yet, with all the disadvantages produced 
by these interruptions, young Kent was graduated with distinguished honor, in 
1781. The perusal of Blackstone's Commentaries, soon after ho entered college, 
gave him a taste for law, and, on leaving Yale, ho commenced its study with 
Egbert Benson, then attorney-general of the State of New York, 

Mr. Kent was admitted to practice, in 1785, as attorney of the Supreme Court 
of his native State; and, in 1787, he was admitted as counsellor of the same 
court. He was then married and settled at Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, He 
was exceedingly studious, and always methodical.' While his profession was 
his chief care, he did not escape the influence of the ambitious desire of a pol- 
itician ; and joining with Hamilton and other leading Federalists in his State, he 
soon became identified with the public measures of the day. In 1790, and again 
in 1792, he represented the Poughkeepsie district in the State legislature. Hav- 
ing failed as a candidate for the same office, in 1793, ho removed to the city of 
New York, and became Professor of Law in Columbia College. In 1796, he was 
appointed master in Chancery, and the following year he was made recorder of 
the city of New York. At about this time the Faculty of Columbia College 
evinced their appreciation of his great legal learning, by conferring upon him 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, Those of Harvard and Dartmouth after- 

1. At that time he commenced a system of self-training, of great value. He divided the day into six 
portions. From dawn until eight o'clock, he devoted two hours to Latin ; then two to (ireek, and the 
remainder of the time before dinner to law. The afternoon was given to French and English authors, 
and the evening to friendship and recreation, in which he took special delight. 



336 



JAMES KENT. 




•vrard imitated their example. He was very hioflily esteemed by Governor Jay; 
and in 1797. that chief magistrate of the State of New York appointed Mr. Kent 
associate justice of the Supreme Court. Three j'cars afterward, he and Judge 
RadcUffe were appointed to revise the legal code of the State, for which they 
received the highest encomiums of the best jurists in the country. Step by step 
Justice Kent went up tlie ladder of professional honor and distinction. In 1804, 
he was appointed chief justice of the State, and he filled that important office 
with great dignity and ability until Februarj^, 1814, when he accepted the office 
of chancellor. In that exalted station he labored on with fidelity, until 1823, 
when lie had reached the age of sixty years, and was ineligible for service there- 
in, according to the unwise provisions of the Constitution of 1821. He finished 
his labors as chancellor, by hearing and deciding every case that had been 
brought before him ; and he left the office bearing the most sincere regrets of 
every member of his profession, and of the people at large. Soon after retiring 
from public life, he was again elected Law Professor in Columbia College. He 
revised his former lectures, added new ones to them, and then published the 
whole in four volumes, with the title of Commentaries on American Law. That 
great work is a text-book, and has given Chancellor Kent the palm, in the 
opinion of the best judges in this country and in Europe, as one of the first legal 
Writers of his time. 

Chancellor Kent possessed all those public and private virtues which constitute 
a true man. Industrious, temperate, social and religious, he was blessed with 



WILLIAM DUNLAP. 337 



sound health, warm friends, devoted flimily affection, and an unclouded faith in 
Divine promises. He retained his robust health and activity until within a few 
weeks of his death, ' which occurred at his residence on Union Square, Now 
York, on the 12th of December, 1847, when at the age of eighty-four years. 



WILLIAM DUNLAP. 

AMONG the privileged few who had the honor of painting the portrait of 
Washington, from life, was William Dunlap, who is equallv distinguished 
as artist and author. He was born at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on the 19th 
of February, 1766, and at the house of a kind neighbor, his taste for pictures and 
reading was early developed by familiarity there with paintings and books. Tho 
storm of the Revolution produced great confusion in New Jersey, and young 
Dunlap's education was almost utterly neglected, until his father removed to the 
city of New York, in 1777, which was then in possession of tho British. There, 
while at play, William lost an eye, by accident. He had become very expert in 
copying prints, in India ink, and this accident perilled all his future career as a 
painter, of which he now dreamed continually. The difficulty was soon over- 
come by habit, and he used his pencil almost incessantly, with occasionally a 
word of instruction from an artist. He commenced portrait-painting at the age 
of seventeen years, and at Rocky Hill, in New Jersey, he was allowed to paint 
the portrait of Washington.2 

In 1784, young Dunlap went to England, and became a pupil of tho great 
Benjamin West. His progress was slow, for ho spent much of his time in the 
enjoyments of tho amusements of London. After an absence of three ycais, he 
returned to New York, commenced portrait-painting, but being an indifferent 
artist, he found very little employment. Discouraged by his ill success, he aban- 
doned the art, "took refuge," he says, "in literature," and afterward joined his 
father in mercantile business. He married a sister of the wife of Dr. D wight, of 
Yale College, and ho was much benefited by his connection with the flimily of 
one who proved a most excellent companion. That connection turned him from 
the paths that led to profligacy and ruin. He continued to be a thrifty merchant 
until 1805, when he unfortunately became the lessee of the New York theatre, 
and by losses was made a bankrupt. He immediately returned to portrait- 
painting for a livelihood, first in Albany, and then in Boston, but with his former 
ill success. Half-despairing, he again laid aside his pallette, and becam.e general 
superintendent and occasional manager of the New York theatre. He continued 
in that business until 1812, when he again returned to his art. It failed to give 
him bread. He employed his pen in writing the Memoirs of George Frederid:; 
Cooke, the celebrated English actor, for the press; and he became editor of a 
magazine called The Recorder. In 1814, he was appointed paymaster-gcncrr.l 
of the militia of the State of New York, in the service of the United States. 
This employment took him from his pencil and pen, and continued until 181G. 
Then, at the age of fifty-one years, he first became permanently a painter, and 
his true artist-life began. He went from place to place in the United States and 
Canada, painting portraits with considerable success. He also turned his atten- 
tion to the higher walks of art, and produced, in succession, three largo pictures 

1. The writer saw him often, dniine; the Summer preceding his death, step from the city railway cars 
with the firmness and agility of a man of fifty. 

2. It was at Rocky Hill, a little while before the disbanding of the Continental forces, in the Autumn 
of 1783, that Washington issued his FarewfJl Address to the Arm;/. Congress was then in session at 
Princeton, a few miles distant. 



338 JACOB BKOWN. 



— Christ Rejected^ Death on the Pale Bbrse,^ and Calvary. The exhibition cf 
these in various parts of the Union, contributed materially to the support of his 
family, for many years. lie painted other *and smaller pieces, some of which, 
and especially The Historic Muse, were productions of great excellence. 

In 1830, Mr. Dunlap commenced lecturing on Fine Art topics, and attracted 
much attention; and, in 1832, he published a History of the American Theatre. 
It was very favorably received, and was followed by his history of the Arts of 
Design in the United States. In the meanwhile [Februarj^, 1833], he received a 
complimentary benefit at the Park theatre, New York, which gave him over 
two thousand five hundred dollars. In 1839, he published tlie first volume of a 
History of the State of New Torh. The second volume was unfinished at the 
time of his death. Not long before that occurrence, his friends got up an ex- 
hibition of paintings for his benefit, and the last days of his life were made happy 
by plenty. He died in New York city, on the 2Sth of September, 1839, in the 
seventy-fourth year of his age. Mr. Dunlap was the author of several dramas; 
also a biography of Charles Brockden Brown. 



JACOB BROWN. 

GREAT events as often produce eminent men as eminent men produce great 
events. The heavings of the earthquake cast up lofty hills ; so do the 
political and social convulsions of nations make dwarfs in quietude giants amid 
commotions. The war of the Hevolution called a vast amount of latent genius 
into action, and great statesmen and warriors appeared, where even the germs 
were not suspected. The second "War for Independence, commenced in 1812, 
had a like effect, and statesmen and military leaders came from the work-shop 
and the furrow. Of the latter was Jacob Brown, a native of Bucks county, 
Pennsylvania, and the son of Quaker parents. He was born on the 9th of May, 
IT 15. He. was well educated. At the age of sixteen years, Jacob's father lost 
his property, and the well-trained youth at once resolved to earn his own living. 
Prom eighteen to twenty-one years of age he taught a school at Crosswicks. in 
New Jersey, and at the sa,me time ho studied with great assiduity. Then, for 
about two years, he was employed as a surveyor in the vicinity of Cincinnati; 
and, in 1198, he was teaching school in the city of New York. There he com- 
menced the study of law, but finding it not congenial to his taste, he .abandoned 
it, purchased some wild land in the present Jefierson county, near the foot of 
Lake Ontario, and settled upon it, in 1199. He pursued the business of a farmer 
with skill and industry; and, in 1809, he was appointed to the command of a 
regiment of militia. The governor of New York commissioned him a brigadier, 
in 1811 ; and when, the following year, v\'ar with Great Britain commenced, ho 
was intrusted with the command of the first detachment of New York militia, 
which was called into the service of the United States, and charged with the 
defence of the frontier, from Oswego to Lake St, Francis, a distance of almost 
two hundred miles. In October of that year, he gallantly defended Ogdensburg, 
Avith only about four hundred men, against eight hundred Britons. At the ex- 
piration of his term, the government offered him the commission of colonel in the 
regular army, but he declined it. In the Spring of 1813, he drove the enemy 
from Sackett's Harbor. In his operations there he displayed so much judgment 
and skill, that Congress gave him the commission of a brigadier-general in the 

1. This composition he made from a printed descriplion of West's great picture on the same Bnbject. 



GEORGE CLINTON-. 831 



Federal array. Tn the Autumn of that year he was active and efficient on the 
banks of the St. Lawrence ; and after the retreat of the American troops from 
Canada, in November, the illness of General Wilkinson made the chief command 
devolve upon General Brown. Toward the close of January, 1814, he was pro- 
moted to major-general, and he was assiduous during the few weeks preceding 
the opening of the campaign for that year, in disciplining the troops and giving 
them encouragement. He was ordered to the command on the Niagara frontier, 
in the Spring of 1814, and during the succeeding Summer and Autumn he won 
imperishable honors for himself and country. For his gallantry and good con, 
duct in the successive battles of Chippewa, Niagara Falls, and Fort Erie, he re- 
ceived the thanks of Congress and a gold commemorative medal, and the plaudits 
of the nation. He was twice severely wounded in the battle at Niagara Falls, 
but he was in service at Fort Erie, a few weeks later. 

At the close of the war General Brown was retained in the army, and was 
appointed to the command of the northern division. In 1821, he was appointed 
general-in-chief of the armies of the United States, and held that office until his 
death, which occurred at his head-quarters, in Washington city, on the 24th of 
February, 1828, at the age of fifty-three years. His widow now [1855] resides 
at Brownsville, the place of their early settlement. 



OKOROE CLINTON. 

ENERGY, decision, courage, and purest patriotism, were the prominent features 
in the character of George Clinton, the first republican governor of New 
York, and afterward Vice-President of the United States. Ho was the youngest 
son of Colonel Charles Clinton, and was born in that portion of old Ulster county 
now called Orange, on the 26th of July, 1739. His education was intrusted to 
a private tutor, and at an early age his adventurous s^nrit yearned for the sea. 
Ho finally left his father's house clandestine!}^, and sailed in a privateer. On 
his return, he entered the military company of his brother James,' as lieutenant, 
and accompanied him in Bradstreet's expedition against Fort Frontenac, at the 
foot of Lake Ontario, in 1758. At the close of the French and Indian war, ho 
studied law under Chief Justice Smith, and rose to distinction in that profession. 
The troubled sea of politics was consoiaant with his nature, and ho embarked upon 
it with great. zeal. Ho was a zealous Whig, and was a member of the Colonial 
Assembly of New York, in the Spring of 1775. In May of that year he took a 
seat in the Continental Congress, where he remained until the following Sum- 
mer, and voted for the Declaration of Independence on the 4th of July. Having 
been appointed brigadier-general of the militia of New York, his new duties 
called him away from Congress before that instrument was signed by the mem- 
bers, and thus he was deprived of the immortal honor of an arch-rebel. 

In March, 1777, General Clinton was commissioned a brigadier-general, by 
Congress, and a month afterward he was chosen both governor and lieutenant- 
governor of the State of New York, under its republican constitution. He ac- 
cepted the former office, and the latter was filled by Mr. Van Cortlandt. Gov- 
ernor Clinton exercised the duties of chief magistrate for six consecutive terms, 

1. James was born on the 0:h of August, 1736. After the French and Indian war, he commanded four 
companies of provincial troop.s, in his native county, employed to bar the inroads of Indians. He ac- 
companied Montgomery to Quebec, in 1775, and was an active officer, with the rank of brigadier, durirg 
a great portion of tl:e Revolution. He returned to'his estate near Newburgh, Orange county, New York, 
after the war, and there he died, on the 22d of December, 1812, at the age of seventy -five years. He wa? 
the father of Dewitt Clinton, the eminent governor of New York. 



K^O WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE. 

or eighteen years, when, in 1795, he was succeeded by John Jay. Acting in 
his civil and miUtary capacity at the same ti«ne, the energetic governor and gen- 
eral performed the most essential service during the whole war. He was in 
command of Fort Montgomery, in the Hudson Highlands, when it was captured, 
with Fort Clinton, in the Autumn of 1777 ; and he did more than any other man 
not in service with tlie army, in preventing a communication between the British 
in Canada and the city of New York. In 1788. lie presided over the convention 
held at Poughkeepsie to consider the Federal Constitution. After retiring from 
office, in 1795, he remained in private life about five years, when he was again 
chosen governor of his State. He was succeeded by Morgan Lewis, in 1804, and 
the same year he was elevated to the station of Vice-President of the United 
States. He was reelected, with Mr. Madison, in 1808, and was acting in dis- 
charge of the duties of that office at the time of liis death. That event occurred 
at Washington city, on the 20th of April, 1812, when in the seventy-third year 
of his age. 



W I T. L I A M BAINBRIDGE. 

THE first man who unfurled the American flag in the harbor of Constantinople, 
was Captain William Bainbridge, who was then in the unwilliiig service of 
the haughty Dey of Algiers, as bearer of that barbarian's ambassador to the 
court of the Turkish Sultan. That sovereign regarded the event as a happy 
omen of peace and good-will between his throne and the government of that far- 
off country (oi which, perhaps, he had never heard), for there seemed an affinity 
between his own crescent flag and the stor-spangled banner of the new empire in 
the West. 

William Bainbridge was born at Princeton, New Jersey, on the 7tli of May, 
1774, and at the age of fifteen years went to sea as a common saUor. Three 
years afterward he was promoted to mate of a ship engaged in the Dutch trade, 
and at the age of nineteen he was its captain. He became very popular in the 
merchant service ; and when an anticipated war with France caused the organ- 
ization of an American navy. Captain Bainbridge was offered the commission of 
a lieutenant and the position of a commander. His first cruise was in tlie 
schooner Retaliation^ which was captured by two French vessels and taken to 
Guadaloupe. The governor of the island, desiring to remain neutral, offered 
Captain Bainbridge his liberty and his schooner, if he would promise to return 
to the United States without molesting any French vessel that might fall in his 
way. Bainbridge peremptorily refused to make any stipulation concerning his 
own conduct, yet the governor gladly allowed him to depart. On returning 
home, his conduct was approved, and he was promoted to Master and Com- 
mander. 

In 1799, Captain Bainbridge was appointed to the command of a small vessel 
to cruise off Cuba. He behaved so well that he was promoted to post captain, 
the following year. He soon afterward took command of the frigate Washing- 
ton^ and was ordered to proceed to Algiers with the annual tribute which the 
United States had agreed to pay that power. The Dey compelled him to carry 
an Algerine ambassador to the Sultan, and in the harbor of Constantinople Bain- 
bridge received honors awarded only to the Lord High Admiral of the Turkish 
navy. On his return to Algiers, he was instrumental in saving the French 
residents there, for the Dey had declared war Avith France, and would have im- 
prisoned or enslaved the few French people in his dominions. For this generous 



WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE. 



341 




act, Napoleon, then First Consul, thanked Captain Bainbridge, and his own 
government highly approved the act. In June, 1801, he was appointed to the 
command of the Essex frigate, and proceeded to the Mediterranean, to protect 
American commerce there against the piratical Tripolitans. He returned the 
following year; and in July, 1803, he sailed in the frigate Philadelphia, to join 
the squadron of Commodore Preble, in the Mediterianean, He captured a hos- 
tile Moorish vessel, and at once cooled the war spirit of the Emperor of Morocco. 
Under the directions of Preble, Captain Bainbridge proceeded to blockade the 
harbor of Tripoli, where the Philadelphia, on the morning of the last day of Octo- 
ber, ran upon a reef of rocks, and was captured by the gun-boats of the Tripol- 
itans.' Bainbridge and his crew were made captives, and suffered imprison- 
ment and slavery until 1805, when they were liberated, by treaty. From that 
time until the commencement of war, in 1812, Captain Bainbridge was employed 



1. See sketc>i of Decatur. 



342 ISAAC CHAUNCEY. 



alternately in the public and the merchant service. Then he was appointed to 
the command of the Constellation frigate. He was transferred to the Constitution^ 
afcer the destruction of the Guerriere, and off tlie coast of Brazil he captured the 
British frigate Java, late in December, 1812. In that action he was dangerously 
wounded. Among the prisoners was General Hislop, governor of Bombay, who 
was so pleased with the kind attentions which he received from Captain Bain- 
bridge, that he presented him with a splendid gold-mounted sword. For his 
gallantry, Congress awarded him a gold medal. In 1813, he took command of 
the Navy Yard at Charlestown. After the war he went twice to the Mediter- 
ranean, in command of squadrons sent to protect American commerce. He was 
president of the Board of Navy Commissioners for three years ; and he prepared 
the signals now in use in our navy. Commodore Bainbridge suffered from sick- 
ness, for several years, and his voyage of earthly life finally ended at Philadelphia, 
on the 27th of July, 1833, when he was about fifty-nine years of age. 



ISAAC CHAUNCEY. 

COMMODORE ISAAC CHAUNCEY ranks among the noblest of the naval 
heroes of the second War for Independence, notwithstanding his operations 
were confined during that war to the smallest of the great Lakes on our northern 
frontier. He was a native of Black Rock, Fairfield county, Connecticut, where 
he was born at about the commencement of the Revolution. His father was a 
wealthy farmer, and descendant of one of the earlier settlers of that colony. 
Isaac was well educated, and was designed for the profession of the law, but at 
an early age he ardently desired to try life on the sea, and was gratified by sail- 
ing with an excellent ship-master from the port of New York. He loved the 
occupation, very rapidly acquired a thorough knowledge of nautical affairs, and 
at the age of nineteen years was master of a vessel. He made several successful 
voyages to the East Indies in ships belonging to the late John Jacob Astor. In 
1798, he entered the navy of the United States, with a lieutenant's commission, 
under Commodore Truxton. He behaved gallantly in the Mediterranean ; and 
in actions off Tripoli he was acting captain of the frigate Constitution. For his 
gallantry and seamanship in that capacity, he received the highest praise from 
Commodore Preble, and Congress presented him with an elegant sword. He 
was also promoted to master commandant, in 1804; and, in 1806, he received 
the commission of captain. 

When war with England commenced, in 1812, Commodore Chauncey was 
appointed to the highly-important post of commander of the naval forces to b@ 
created on Lake Ontario. A few months after his arrival at Sackett's Harbor, 
then in the midst of a wilderness, he had quite a fleet of merchant-vessels 
equipped for naval service ; and in the following Spring he had a sloop-of-war 
and a frigate ready for duty. One was built in twenty-eight days, the other in 
forty-four, from the time of laying the keel. With these, and some other addi- 
tioiis to his squadron, Commodore Chauncey performed very important services 
during the war, especially in the transportation of troops. He could never bring 
the British naval commander on the lake into action, and so failed of making 
any brilliant achievement.^ 

1. After the war, Commodore Chauncej' and Commander Yeo were dining together, when the latter 
explained the reasons of his avoidina; actior. His government instructed him to do so, because all he 
would gain by a victory would be the destruction of the American fleet, while a defeat would be likely 
to lead to the entire loss of Canada. 



STEPHEN DECATUR. 343 

At tho close of the war, Commodore Chauncey was appointed to the command, 
of the Washington, of seventy-four guns; and, in 1816, he commanded a small 
squadron in the Mediterranean. There he assisted the American consul-general 
at Algiers, in negotiating a treaty with that power, ^ which continued in force 
until the French conquest of the province, in 1830. In every Mediterranean 
jiort that he visited, Comiuodoro Chauncey loft a most favorable impression of 
the Americans. He returned to tho United States in 1818, and. after reposing 
awhile upon his estate on tho P]ast River, near the city of New York, he was 
called to Washington city to perform tho duties of Navy Commissioner. He 
remained in tlie Federal city, in that capacity, until 1824, when ho was appointed 
to tiie command of the naval station at Brooklyn, New York. In 1833, he was 
again chosen one of the Board of Navy Commissioners, and continued in that 
service until his death, when he was president of that body. He died at Wash- 
ington city, on tho 27 th of January, 1840, at the age of about sixty-five years. 



STEPHEN DECATUR. 

AMONG- the naval heroes whom tho Americans delighted to honor, the memory 
of no one is cherished with more affection than that of tho gallant Decatur, 
who, like Hamilton, ^' lived like a man, but died like a fool." He was of French 
lineage, and was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, on the 5th of January, 
1779. Hislfather was a naval officer, who, after the establishment of the United 
States navy, in 1798, had command first of the sloop-of-war Delaivare, and after- 
ward of the frigate Philadelphia, in connection with whose fate his son gained 
immortal honors. 

Stephen Decatur was educated in Philadelphia, and at the age of nineteen 
years entered the navy as a midshipman, under Commodore Barry. He was 
promoted to lieutenant, in 1799. Three times he sailed to the Mediterranean, 
while holding that subordinate commission. Just before his third arrival there, 
the Philadelphia frigate had struck upon a rock in the harbor of Tripoh, and had 
fallen into tho hands of the Tripolitans.'-^ Lieutenant Decatur immediately con- 
ceived a plan for re-capturing or destroying the vessel. Commodore Preble gave 
him permission to execute it. At the head of seventy volunteers, in the ketch 
Intrepid, he entered the harbor of Tripoli at eight o'clock on a dark evening in 
February, 1804. The Philadeljjhia lay moored within half gun-shot of tho 
bashaw's castle and the main battery, with her guns mounted and loaded, and 
watched by Tripolitan gun-boats. Nothing daunted, Decatur approached within 
two hundred yards of tho frigate, at eleven o'clock, and was then discovered and 
hailed. His Maltese pilot misled the Tripolitans, and Decatur's intentions were 
unsuspected, until he was alongside. Decatur and Midshipman Morris sprang 
upon the deck of the frigate, followed by the volunteers, and soon the vessel 
was in complete possession of the Americans. She could not bo borne away, so 
Decatur fired her in several places, and escaped without losing a man. Only 
four were wounded. For that daring achievement he was promoted to post- 
captain. During the remainder of the war with Tripoli he performed many bold 
exploits, which gave him rank among the noblest spirits of the age. 

After his return home, Decatur was employed in the superintendence of gun- 

1. The treaty which Commodore Decatur had previously negotiated had been violated immediately 
after that officer had left the Mediterranean. 

2. See sketch of Bainbridge. 



844 JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 

boats, until ordered to supersede Commodore Barron in command of the Chesa- 
peake. During the war with Great Britain that soon followed, he was distin- 
guished for his gallantry in action and generosity to the vanquished. In January, 
1815, while in command of the President, he vras made a prisoner, but was soon 
released by the treaty of peace. He was afterward despatched, with £ squadron, 
to the Mediterranean, and in a very short time, during the Summer of I8i5 \q 
completely humbled the piratical Barbary Powers — Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli^» 
and compelled them to make restitution of money and prisoners. He did more : 
he compelled them to relinquish all claims to tribute hitherto given by the 
United States since 1795. Full security to American commerce in the Mediter- 
ranean was obtained, and the character of the government of the United States 
was greatly elevated in the opinion of Europe. Then was accomplished, during 
a single cruise, what the combined powers of Europe dared not to attempt. 

On his return to the United States, Commodore Decatur was appointed one 
of the Board of Navy Commissioners, and resided at Kalorama, formerly the seat 
of Joel Barlow, near Washington city. For a long time unpleasant feelings had 
existed between Decatur and Barron; and, in 1819, a correspondence between 
xhem resulted in a duel at Bladensburg. Both were wounded ; Decatur mortally. 
That event occurred on the 22d of March, 1820, and Decatur died that night, at 
the age of forty years. The first intimation that his wife had of the matter was 
the arrival at home of her dying husband, conveyed by his friends. Thirty-five 
years have since rolled away, and his "beloved Susan" yet [1855] remains the 
widow of Stephen Decatur. 



JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 

THE name of James Fenimore Cooper, is first on the list of American novelists, 
and it will be long before one so gifted shall wear his mantle as an equal. 
"He was one of those frank and decided characters who make strong enemies 
and warm friends — who repel by the positiveness of their convictions, while they 
attract by the richness of their culture and the amiability of their lives." Mr. 
Cooper was born at Burlington, New Jersey, on the 15th of September, 1789. 
His father, an immigrant from P]ngland, had settled there some twenty years 
before. When James was two j-ears of age, the flunily removed to the banks of 
Otsego Lake, and there founded the settlement and beautiful village of Coopers- 
town. The lad was prepared for college by Rev. Mr. Ellison, rector of St. Peter's 
Church, Albany; catered Yale as a student, in 1802, and was graduated there 
in 1805. Ho chose the navy as the theatre of action, and entered it as a mid- 
shipman, in 1806. After a service of six years, he was about to be promoted to 
lieutenant, when he loved and married Miss Delancey (sister of the late 
Bishop W. H. Delancey of the diocese of Western New York), and left the navy 
forever. It was a school in which he was trained for the special service of lit- 
erature in a peculiar way ; and to his nautical information and experience during 
that six years, we are indebted for those charming sea-stories from his pen, which 
gave him such great celebrity at home and abroad. 

Mr. Cooper's first production, of any pretensions, was a novel entitled Persecu- 
tion, a tale of English life. It was published anonymously, met with small suc- 
cess, and the author was inclined to abandon the pen that had so deceived him 
with false hopes. He resolved to try again, and The Spy was the result. His 
triumph was now greater than his previous failure. That work was a broad 
foundation of a brilliant superstructure, and Fame waited upon the author with 



JAMES FENIMOEE COOPER. 



345 




t^ f-^-yte^y^ 



0(^^f-^^ 



abundant laurels. Tn 1 823, his Pioneers appeared ; and as the series of Leather- 
Stocking Tales — The Prairie, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, and The 
Deerslayer — were published, they were read with the greatest eagerness. His 
fame was fully established ; and by the publication of his novels in Europe, 
American literature began to attract attention in quarters where it had been 
sneered at. His series of admirable sea-stories were equally successful ; and as 
The Pilot, The Red Rover, The Water Witch, The Two Admirals, and Wing and 
Wing, were issued from the press, they were sought after and read with the 
greatest avidity. 

In 1826, Mr. Cooper went to Europe, preceded by a fame that gave him a key 
to the best society there. On all occasions he was the noble and fearless cham- 
pion of his country and democracy, and his pen was often employed in defence 
of these, even while his genius was receiving the homage of aristocracy. While 
abroad, he wrote The Bravo, The Heidenmaur, The Headsman, and one or two 
inferior tales; and on his return home, he wrote Homeward Bound, and Home as 
Found. These were preceded by a Letter to his Countrymen. The pi'eparation 
and publication of these works were unfortunate for the reputation and personal 
ease of Mr. Cooper; and his sensitiveness to the lash of critics speedily involved 
him in law-suits with editors whom he prosecuted as libelers. His feuds in- 
creased his naturally irritable nature, and for several years they embittered his 
life. They finally ceased ; his ruffled spirit became calm ; the current of popular 
feeling which had been turned against him resumed its old channels of admu-a- 

15* 



846 NICHOLAS BIDDLE. 



tion, and the evening of his days were blessed with tranquillity. At his hospit- 
able mansion on the banks of the Otsego, h^ enjoyed domestic peace and the 
society of intellectual friends; and there, on tlie 14th of September, 1851, his 
spirit went to its final rest, when he lacked but one day of being sixty-two years 
of age. 

Mr. Cooper is best known to the world as a novelist, yet he was the author 
of several works of graver import. Among these may be named a Naval Hiatory 
of the Uiiited States, Gleanings in Europe, Sketches of Switzerland, and several 
smaller works, some of them controversial. " He still lives," says a pleasant 
Avriter, "in the hearts of grateful millions, whose spirits have been stirred within 
them by his touching pathos, and whose love of country has been warmed into 
new life by the patriotism of liis eloquent pen." 



NICHOLAS BIDDLE. 

^PHE contest between President Jackson, chief magistrate of the Republic, and 
1 President Biddle. chief magistrate of the Bank of the United States, forms 
a most interesting chapter in our poUtical and social history. The latter was a 
native of Philadelphia, the scene of that warfare, where he was born on the 8th 
of January, 1186. His ancestors were among the earlier settlers in that State, 
and came to America with William Penn. His father was distinguished for his 
patriotic services during the War for Independence ; and while Dr. Franklin was 
chief magistrate of that commonwealth, he was vice-president. Nicholas was 
educated first in the academy at Philadelphia, then in the college department of 
the University of Pennsylvania, and completed his collegiate course in the col- 
lege at Princeton, in September, 1801. He was unsurpassed in his class, for 
scholarship, when he was graduated. The law was his choice as a profession, 
and he was almost prepared to enter upon its practice, in 1804, when he ac- 
cepted an invitation from General Armstrong (who had been appointed minister 
to France), to accompany him as his private secretary. He visited several coun- 
tries on the Continent before his return, and was private secretary, for awhile, 
to Mr. Monroe, representative of the United States at the English court. 

Mr, Biddle returned to America, in 1807, and commenced the practice of his 
profession in Philadelphia, where, in connection with Mr. Dennie, he edited the 
" Port-Folio," until the death of tne latter. He also prepared a history of Lewis 
and Clarke's expedition to the Pacific Ocean, across the Continent, from material, 
placed in his hands. In the Autumn of 1810, he was etected to a seat in the 
lower house of the legislature of Pennsylvania, where he distinguished himself 
by efforts in favor of a common-school system ; and also in favor of the re-charter 
of the Bank of the United States. He declined a reelection, in 1811, but was a 
member of the State Senate, in 1814, where he evinced much sound statesman- 
ship. He was afterward twice nominated for Congress, but his party (demo- 
cratic) being in the minority, he was not elected. In 1819, he was appointed 
one of the government directors of the Bank of the United States, at which time 
Langdon Cheves became its president. That gentleman resigned, in 1823, and 
Mr. Biddle was chosen to succeed him, by an unanimous vote. For sixteen 
years he stood at the head of that great moneyed institution, and conducted its 
affairs with wonderful ability. When President Jackson brought all the influ- 
ence of his position to bear against the re-charter of the bank, Mr. Biddle sum- 
moned the resources of his genius, and sustained the unequal contest for a long 



JOHN SULLIVAN. 847 



time. But ho was obliged to yield. The bank expired by its charter-limitation, 
iu 1836, when it was incorporated by tlie State of Pennsylvania. Mr. Biddle 
continued at the head of the institution until 1839, when he retired to private 
life, to enjoy repose at his beautiful estate of Andalusia, on the banks of the 
Delaware, above Philadelphia. There the great financier died, on the 2'7th of 
February, 1844, at the age of fifty-eight years. Among other papers of value 
prepared by Mr. Biddle, was a volume compiled at the request of Mr. Monroe, 
and published by Congress, entitled Gommtrcial Digest. 



JOHN SULLIVAN. 

LIKE G-eneral St. Clair, General Sullivan was a meritorious but often unfortu- 
nate officer. His chief fault seemed to be a want of vigilance ; and during 
the Revolution that weakness proved disastrous — first at Bedford, near Brooklyn, 
in 1776, and on the Brandy wine a year later.' John Sullivan was of Irish 
descent, and was born in Berwick, Maine, on the 17th of February, 1740. His 
youth was spent chiefly in farm labor. At maturity he studied law, and estab- 
lished himself in its practice in Durham, New Hampshire, where he soon rose 
to considerable distinction as an advocate and politician. He was chosen a 
delegate to the Continental Congress, in 1774, and soon after his return from 
Philadelphia he was engaged, with John Langdon and others, in seizing Fort 
"William and Mary, at Portsmouth.^ When, the following year, the Continental 
army was organized, he was appointed one of the eight brigadiers first commis- 
sioned by Congress; and early in 1776, he was promoted to major-general. 
Early in the Spring of that year he superseded Arnold in command of the Con- 
tinental troops iu Canada; and later in the season he joined Washington at New 
York. General Greene commanded the chief forces at Brooklyn, designed to 
repel the invaders, then on Staten Island, but was taken sick, and the leadership 
of his division was assigned to Sullivan. In the disastrous battle that soon fol- 
lowed, he was made prisoner, but was soon afterward exchanged, and took com- 
mand of Lee's division, in New Jersey, after that officer's capture, later in the 
season. In the Autumn of 1777, General Sullivan was in the battles of Brandy- 
wine and Germantown; and in the succeeding Winter, he was stationed in 
Rhode Island, preparatory to an attempted expulsion of the British therefrom. 
He besieged Newport, in August, 1778, but was unsuccessful, because the French 
Admiral D'Estaing would not cooperate with him, according to promise and 
arrangement. General Sullivan's military career closed after his memorable 
campaign against the Indians, in Western New York, early in the Autumn of 
1779. He resigned his commission because he felt aggrieved at some action of 
the Board of War, and was afterward elected to a seat in Congress. From 1786 
to 1789, he was president or governor of New Hampshire, when, under the 
provision of the new Federal Constitution, he was appointed district judge. That 
office he held until his death, which occurred on the 23d of January, 1795, when 
he was in the fifty-fifth year of his age. 

1. The first was at the close of August, 1776.' That conflict is generally known as the Battle of Lorg 
Island. On account of Sulli\"an's want of vigilance, Sir Henry Clinton, unobserved, got in his rear near 
Bedford, cut oflF his retreat to the American lines, and placed the Americans between the balls and 
bayonets of the British in the rear and the Hessians in front. Because of a lack of vigilance on the 
Brandywine, in September, 1777, Sullivan allowed Cornwallis to cross that stream, unobserved, and to 
fall upon the rear of the American army. 

2. See Sketch of Langdon. 



348 JAMES BROWN. OLIVER HAZZARD PERRY. 



JAMES BROWN. 

ONE of the early enterprisiug Amerieaus who saughfc auil obtained 
wealth and renown in ttie newly- acquired Tenitory of Louisiana, 
was Jaaits Brow^n, a dis!.'uarui-he') Senatoi- and dipl^mivSt. He was horn 
near iSlaunton, Virginia, on Jho 11th of September, 1766. He wa^ one of 
.1 dozen eluldreri of a Pivsi yteiian clergvmao, and was educated fit Wil- 
li nn and Mary CoJleife, at Wi'liamsburg. After studying la?*^ under the 
eminent Ge: rsj^e Wythe, he went to Kentiacky, and j )ined bis elder 
brother, John, who r-^ presented that State in Congress for about twenty 
years. When th jt biothf r was called to political life, James succeeded 
him in his law practice, and soon rose to eminence. In 1791, he com- 
manded a companv of mounted riflemen, under General Charles Scott, 
in au expediti )y against th-^ Indians in Ihe Wabash Valley. When, in 
1792, Kentuck y w;is a<lraitted into the Union as a sovereign common- 
wealth, Govt^rijor Shelby eppnintorl Mr. Brown Secretary of State. He 
resided at Frankfort most of the time. Ho and Henry Clay ma^^ried sis- 
ters, daughters of Colonel Thomas Hart, and were contemporaries at the 
bai. 

After the purchase of Louisiana. Mr. Brown went to Ne^ Orleans, and 
at once enteiecJ it'to :in ^-xieusivt^ and iucra'ive practicr-, for there was 
an immense amountot valuable pr ioe<ty requiringrdeniitication of own- 
eiship, throui?h the me<fium of the iiew c turt-). He way assuciated with 
Mr. Livingston in the compilati'^n of ih*^ ci^il co<ie of L'>uisiana, and con- 
tinued his lucrative liw practice in New OtleaDs, uniil 1813, when he 
was elected one cf the first S-i>a'ors in CooLre^s from the newly-ori?ao- 
ized Stale. Healsoh<>ld the offlee of United Stite*? District A' tomey. by 
tbe appointment <'f Pre-ideot Jefierson In Congress he ably sustained 
the a "ministration, in its war measures. He left the Senate in 1817, 
but returned to it again, after are-election, in 1819. Pre<-ident Monroe 
e>Jieemf<l him \erv hiirhly ; and, in 1823, he appointed b'm minister 
plenipotentiary to Franc->. He filled that station with ereot dignity arid 
ability nniil the Autumn of 1829, when heobtained permission to return 
home. He then retired to piivafe Ji^'e, and could never he induced to 
leave its coveted renose afterward. He died of anople^y, in the city of 
Philadelphia, on the 7th of April, 1835, in the sixty-ninth year of his 
age. 

• M ^♦^ > < 

OLIVER HAZARD PERRY. 

THE laconic despatch of Commodore Perr.v — We have i/iet the enemy and 
they are ow»-s— and the Veni vidi vici of the oh) riuman. will ever sian<l 
as paialleUon the page of History. The gallant autbor of that despatch 
was b ru in South Kingston, Rhode I-land, on the 23d of Auaust, 1785. 
H"s father was then in the naval service of the United States, and dedi- 
cated hi^ infant sin to that profession. He entered the navy as a mid- 
shipman, at the age of thirteen years, on board of the sloop-of-^^ar. Gen- 
eral Greene, At that t'me, war with France seemed inevitable; buc 
y nnsr Perry was not permitted to see active ser'^i'^e until the diflficnlltes 
with Tnpoh afforded hrm an oppoVtunity, he being in ih«^ <-qua^'ron of 
Comm dore Prehle. Alway-i tbonahtful, studious, an I inquisitive rn 
ship lioard, he soon became a skilful seaman and navigator, and an ac- 
complished disci nli'arian. 

In 1810, Midshipma*^' Perry ^a<a nrom'^ted to lieutenant, and placed in 
command of the sehorner Revenge, attached to C >mmod re Rodger's 
squadron, then cruising in the vicinity of New London, in Long Island 



OLIVER HAZZARD PERRY. 




Sound. In tbat vessel be was wirckf-d tbe follocvinff Sprr.ij?, but was uot 
only acquine<i «>t" all blame by a court of inquiry beld a-. Ui-h r^qii S", but 
bis cojuJuct ill pji-vinsr ffuos and fJtores was hiixlily {ipplau ;e . E .rlv iu 
1812, be was ui-ice 1 iu camMiaDl of a flotilla of RUD-boa»s in New Yorir 
barbor. Ho s on }>cca^r e (ii^uu«fed ^A^tlltllat servic % and solici e ' and 
obtained, lor bim-olf and bis nn^n, permissioa to r< i if.»rce Conimori re 
Chauncey on Lake Or >aiio. Ibat officer iujuieoiate'y do-Daicbel J'nrv^ 
if) Lake Eii<sto sup rintend tbe building of asmail pquidron Vwr- to 
oDpose a Btitish naval force ou Ibose we-Jiern \^a"r?i. VVben lea v, 
reiry crui>t^d abou^, tlie west en«l of tho La'<e, an 1 on tbe lOfh ( t 8- p 
timber, 1813. be bai a. f*ev< reeogag- ment witb the euemv. latboXaiy 
rence, wbichc'i^pla.ved {it its imst-b' •■>*i Ibe woids f»f tbe b-ro af'er wbom 
s'le was namHci— Dow'i give up the sMp^— Perry led tbe sq'in 'ron, and ? f i er 
many acts of preac si'ill and tonraee, he acbi'^vel acmnoleto vie r\ . 
He was then only twenty-seven jears of age. It was ono ot" the m «'. im- 
portant ev»^nts of the war. The victor was promote-il to captd'i, receiv<-'l 
tlie thanks of C ngress and St;;le Ips-islatUM-s, an 1 smis h;)j)ied b.v bis 
government with a gold comin moral i^e incdal. 

After tbe war, Can. Perry w-s pu»^^ in command of fbo Java a. tir'-t cla,«!s 
fnarate, and sailed with Cora. Decnturtothp M^« iterrancir. t > nu ish th ^ 
piratical Dey of Aljriers. On bis7e*urn to the United States, bepe-iorme< a 



1. f^ee sketch of Jaioes Lawience. 



850 WILLIAM GASTON. 



deed of heroism equal to any ncliieved in Hie public service. Tlis vessel was 
lying- in Newport harbor, in niid-Wintcr. IJjurino: a fearful storm, intelligence 
reached him that a merchant vessel Avas wreclvcil upon a reef, six miles distant, 
lie inunediately manned his barge, said to Ids crew. "Come, my boys, \vc aro 
going to the relief of shipwrecked seamen; pull away!" and soon afterward ho 
had rescued eleven half-exhausted men, who were clinging to the floating quar- 
ter-deck of their broken vessel. To Perry, it was an act of simple duty in the 
cause of humanity ; to his countrymen, it appeared as holiest heroism, deserving 
of a civic crown. 

The commerce of the United States was greatly annoyed and injured by 
swarms of pirates who infested the West India seas. A small American scpiad- 
ron was stationed there; and, in IS 19, Conunodoro rerry was sent thither, in 
the John- Adann^, to take conunand of the little fleet, chastise the buccaneers, 
and exchange friendly courtesies with the new republics on the Caribbean coast. 
When he arrived, tlie yellow fever was prevailing in the squadron. The com- 
modore was soon attacked by that terrible disease, and on his birth-day, the 23d 
of August, 1810, just as his vessel was entering the harbor of Port Spain, Trin- 
idad, ho expired, at the ago of thirty-four years. He was buried with military 
honoi-s, the folUnving day. Seventeen years afterward, his remains were brought 
to his native land, in a vessel of war, and interred in the North burying-ground, 
at Newport, Rhode Island. Over his grave the State of Rhode Island erected a 
granite monument; and soon after his decease, Congress made a liberal provision 
for his aged mother, and his widow and children. That widows lived about Ibr- 
ty years, the beloved relict of one of the most gallant and accomplished men 
whose deeds have honored our Republic' 



WILLIAM GASTON. 

A MONCr the more recent lights of the North Carolina bar, was William Gaston, 
iV. the eminent statesman, the \ipright judge, and the profound scholar, lie 
was born at Newbern. North Carolina, on tlie 19th of September. 1778. Ilia 
f-xmily was greatly distinguislicd for patriotism during the War for Independence, 
and that moral quality occupied a large space in his character. His lather died 
W'hen ho was only three years of ag-e, and he was left to the care of his excellent 
mothej\ a member of tho Roman Catholic Church. At the n;:ro of thirteen years 
ho was sent to tho college at Georgetown, District of Columbia,- where he took 
special delight in the study of the ancient classics. His heahh became impaired 
by excessive application to his studies, and ho was called home. After somo 
farther preparation he entered the college at Princeton, as a student, in 179-1, 
where he was graduated, two years afterward, with the highest honors. Ho 
studied law in his native town, with Francis Xavier Martin, and was admitted to 
practice in 1798. Before he was twenty-two years of age, ho was a member of 
the Senate of North Carolina, where his talents soon became very conspicuous. 
In 1808, ho was one of the electors of President and Vice-President of the United 
States; and from 1813 until 1817, he was a representative of his district in the 
Federal Congress. He was a Avarm opponent of Madison's administration, and 

1. Abiotlior of Commodore Perry. bejuiivg the same title, was instrumentjil in paining gi-eat 
commiMVi;\l aihaiitniros lor the United St.ites. In eonnnand of a squadron, Comniodoi-eM. C . Ferry 
n\;\de an oiruial visit to .Tapan, and, I yadniirablv-ooudueted negotiations, he .succeeded n\ forming 
a treaty with the aovi-rnment of ti.At empii-e i:i 1S.54, by which its long-sealed ports wei-e open*' 
to Amerioan vessels for ever. 

2. See sketeh of Arehbishop Carroll, 



ZERAH COLBURN. 351 



ably battled against tho war, with his Federal associates of New P]nf^land. One 
of his most powerful s[)eechos in Conj^ress was in tho early part of 1815, against 
tho proposition for authorizing tho President to contract a loan of twenty-five 
millions of dollaTvS, for the purpose of carrying-on tho war. llis learning and 
cloquenco created great suri)riso, and ho was regarded as one of tho ablest and 
most useful men in Congress. 1 lis own State was enriched by liis labors after 
181 Y, where, for twenty -seven years longer, ho was unremitting in active duties 
at tho bar, in tho legislature, in tho convention to amend the Constitution of tho 
State, and as a judge of tho Supremo Court of North Carolina. lie was chosen 
to the latter office in 1834, with the universal approbation of the people, not- 
withstanding a provision of tho then existing State Constitution, prohibited all 
but Protedant Christians, holding a judicial station. 

The memory of few men is so warmly cherished as that of Judge Gaston, by 
tho North Carolinians. Tie was an elegant writer of both prose and poetry, 
pure in all his thoughts and acts, and a noble citizen in every particular. During 
all his life he cherished tho memory of his mother with fondest affection, and 
Tiniformly attributed to her tender care and wise counsels, under Providence, all 
of the moral strength of his character, and his success in life.^ Sweetly has Mrs. 
Sigourney sung — 

" This tolls to mothers what a holy charpfO 
Is theirs ; with what a kindly power their love 
May rule the fountains of Ihe new-horn mind ; 
Warns them to wake at early dawn and sow 
Good seed bct'oro tho world doth sow its tares." 

Judge Gaston died on the 23d of January, 1844, in tho sixty-sixth year of his 
age. 



ZERAH COLBURN. 

TIIK career of Zerah Colburn, who was remarkable for his extraordinary per- 
formances in mental arithmetic, exhibits the melancholy spectacle of a life 
made comparatively miserable by a dependence upon ono precocious faculty, and 
the greed of a misguided parent. He was born at Cabot, Vermont, on the 1st 
of September, 1804, and until ho was almost six years of age, ho appeared the 
dullest of his father's children. At about that time he exhibited extraordinary 
powers of calculation, by a mental process wholly his own, and which he could 
not explain. Tlis father was led to expect groat achievements by his gifted boy, 
and at the same time, with tlio avowed purpose of procuring money to have hini 
educated, he took him to different places in New England, to be examined, hop- 
ing to meet with some generous aid. It was offered by the president of Dart- 
mouth College, who proposed to educate Zerah at his own expense. Hoping 
lor a more favorable offer, his flither took him to Boston, where his wonderful 
powers created a great sensation. They wero indeed wonderful. The most 
difficult questions on tho various arithmetical rules, were solved almost instantly, 
by a mental process, for the manual labor of making figures was altogether too 
tardy for his calculations. 

1. When he was only seven or eierht years of aprc, he was remarkable for his expertness in learning his 
lessons in school. A little boy said to him one day, " William, why is it that you are alwaj's at the 
head of the class, and I am always at the foot?" " There is a reason," William replied, " but if I tell 
you, you must promise to keep it a secret, and do as I do. Whenever I take np a book to study, I first 
say a little prayer my mother tauprht me, that I may be able to learn my lessons." And snrh was hi? 
practice through life. He never attempted any thing of moment, without first invoking Divine assist- 
ancei 



352 JAMES LAWEENCE. 

Several gentlemen in Boston offered to educate the lad, but his father would 
not consent. He travelled with him througli^many of the Middle and Southern 
States, exhibiting him for money; and, in 1812, he went with him to England, 
for the same purpose. After travelling through much of Great Britain and Ire- 
land, they went to Franco, and young Colburn became a student in the Lycee 
Naj)oleon^ for a short time. But in all these wanderings the education of the 
boy was neglected, and the unwise father had utterly failed in what appeared to 
be his main object — money -making — when, in 1816, they returned to Eng- 
land. There the lad found a generous patron in the Earl of Bristol, who placed 
him in "Westminster school, and kept him there about three years. Young 
Colburn was making fine progress, and gave many promises of future success, 
when his father refused to comply with some wishes of the earl, and the patron- 
age of that peer was lost. The foolish and greedy father then had his son pre- 
pared for the stage, but ho was a poor actor, and was soon obliged to abandon 
that profession, and become an assistant teacher in a school in London, to pro- 
cure bread. Zerah finally opened a school on his own account, and he earned 
some money by making astronomical calculations for Dr. Young, then Secretary 
of the Board of Longitude. The elder Colburn died in 1824, and the Earl of 
Bristol and others, assisted Zerah with means to return to his native country. 
. Ho was then twenty jqov^ of age. After spending some time with his mother 
and sisters, ho became assistant teacher in an academy connected with Hamilton 
College, in the State of New York. He soon afterward went to Burlington, 
Vermont, where he gained a precarious living by teaching the French language. 
There ho united himself with the Methodist Society, and soon afterward became 
an itinerant preacher. Ho was an indifferent speaker. Finally, in 1835, he 
settled at Norwich, Connecticut, and became Professor of Latin, Greek, French, 
and Spanish languages, in the " Norwich University." Two years previously, 
ho had written and published a memoir of himself, which contains a great deal 
of curious narrative. He died at Norwich, on the 2d of March, 1840, in tlie 
thirty-fifth year of his age. The moral of his life is, that the wonderful develop- 
ment of a single faculty, only, is no guaranty of success. 



JAMES LAWRENCE. 

A SINGLE act — a single expression — is sometimes suflBcicnt to give a name 
an earthly immortality. The acts and words of Captain James Lawrence 
present an illustrative example. He was the son of a lawyer in Burlington, 
New Jersey, where ho was born on the 1st of October, 1781. "While yet a small 
boy he felt irrepressible longings for the sea ; and at the age of sixteen j^ears he 
was gratified by receiving the appointment of midshipman in the nav3% lie was 
schooled in the war against Tripoli. He acted as Decatur's first lieutenant in 
the daring achievement of burning the Philadd'plda frigate under the guns of 
the Tripoiitan batteries ; and he remained for several j^ears in the Mediterranean, 
in command successively of the Vixen^ Wasp, Argus, and Hornet. "With the 
latter he captured the Peacock off the coast of Demerara, in February, 1813 ; and 
on his return he was promoted to post captain, and placed in command of the 
frigate Chesapeake. While lying in Boston Harbor, at the close of May, the 
British frigate Shannon appeared, and signalled a challenge for the Chesapeake 
to come out and fight. It was accepted by Lawrence, and on the morning of 
the 1st of June, he went out to engage in that naval duel which proved so dis- 
astrous. They opened their guns upon each other, late in the afternoon. Early 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 853 



m the action Captaia Lawrence was wounded in the leg. The vessels came so 
near each other, that the anchor of the Ch&sapeake caught in one of the ports 
of the Shannon, and her guns could not be brought to bear upon the enem^-. 
While in that situ&tion, Captain Lawrence received hLs death-wound, fiom a 
bullet, and when carried below, he cried out in those imperishable words — 
words which the brave Perry placed at his mjist-head three months afterward — 
^'' DonH give up the ship."^ The Ghesopeake was captured after an action of 
eleven minutes, and a loss of one hundred and forty-six men, in killed and 
wounded- Captain Lawrence lived, in great pain, four days, when he died, on 
the 6th of June, 1813, at the age of thirty-one years. He was buried at Halifax, 
Nova Scotia, with military honors. His remains were afterward conveyed to 
New York, and interred in Trinity church-yard, where an appropriate monument 
was erected to his memor_y. It fell into decay, and a more beautiful one has 
since been reared. 



ZACHAKY TAYLOR. 

THE people of the United States are professedly peacie-loving, yet nowhere is 
a military hero more sincerely worshipped by vast masses than here, not, 
wo may charitably hope, because of his vocation, but because of the good achieved. 
for his country by his brave deeds. And when that worship is excessive be- 
cause of some brilliant act, then the people desire to apotheosize the hero bj 
crowning him with the highest honors of the nation — the civic wreath of chief 
magistrate. Of four already thus rewarded. General Zachary Taylor was the 
last. He was a native of Virginia, the " mother of Presidents," and was born in 
Orang© county, on the 24th of September, 1784. His father removed to Ken- 
tucky the following year, and settled near the site of the present city of Louis- 
ville. At the age of about twenty-four years he entered the army of the United 
States as first lieutenant of infantry, and two years afterward he married Miss 
Margaret Smith, a young lady of good family in Maryland. When war was 
declared against Great Britain, in 1812, he held a captain^s commission, and ho 
was placed in command of Fort Harrison, a stockade on the Wabash river. 
There, in his gallant operations against the Indians, he gave promise of future 
renown, and for his heroic defence of his post he was breveted major. During 
the whole war he was an exceedingly useful officer in the North-west. At tho 
close of the contest, when the army was reduced, he was deprived of his majority 
and re-commissioned a captain. His pride would not brook the measure, and 
he left the service. He was soon after reinstated as major, by President Madi- 
son. 

In 1816, Major Taylor was placed in command of a post at Green Bay,- and 
two years afterward he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel. In that position he 
remained until 1832, when President Jackson, who appreciated his great merits, 
gave him the commission of colonel. He served with distinction under General 
Scott in the "Black Hawk War," and remained in command of Fort Crawford, 
at Prairie du Chien, until 1836. Then he went to Florida, and in his operations 
against tho Seminoles, he evinced generalship superior to any officer there. Be- 
cause of his gallantry in the battle at Okeechobee swamp, at the closeof 1837, he was 
breveted brigadier-general ; and the following year the command of all the troops 

L A few years ago a n(>wspapcr paniaraph asserted that a person, then livinsr, who was with 
Captain Lawrence when lie uttered tho expression attributed to liim, rays that his words were, 
insJi.ad of " Don't give uj> the ship! the more probable ones, on such an occasion. I'ij/it her till ahe si-oka,'' 

23 



354 



ZACHARY TAYLOR. 




^^^t^y^^r~ 



in Florida was assigned to him. Tliere lie remained until 1840, when he was 
appointed to the command of the South-western division of the army. He took 
post at Fort Gibson, in 1841, and removed his family to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 
the same year, where he had purchased an estate. 

Pursuant to general expectation, the annexation cf Texas to the United States, 
in 1845, caused a rupture with Mexico, and hostilities were threatened. Gen- 
eral Taylor was ordered to take post in Texas, toward the Mexican frontier, and 
in August, he concentrated his troops, as an Army of Observation, at Corpus 
Christ!. The following Spring he crossed the Colorado with about four thousand 
re.u:ular troops, and approached the Rio Grande. On the 8th and 9th of May he 
gained those brilliant victories at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, which gave 
him imperishable renown as a military leader. Late in September ft)llowing, he 
gained another great victory at Monterey, in Mexico ; and on the 23d of February, 
1847, at the head of only six thousand men, mostly volunteers, he achieved a 
great victory at Buena Vista, over Santa Anna, with an army of twenty thousand 
Mexicans. In all of his movements, from the first blow at Palo Alto until the 
last one at Buena Vista, Taylor displayed the highest order of generalship, the 
most daring intrepidity, and the most unwavering courage. On his return home, 
he was every where greeted wfth the wildest enthusiasm ; and, in 1848, the 



SILAS WEIGHT. 355 



"Whig party, governed by the applauding voice of the nation, regarded him as 
eminently "available," and nominated him for the office of President of the 
United States. In the Autumn of that year, he was elected by a very largo 
majority, and was inaugurated chief magistrate of the RepubUc on the 4th of 
March following. T!ie cares, the duties, the personal inaction incident to his 
station, fiore heavily upon him ; and when disease appeared, these aggravated 
it. After holding the reins of the Tederal government for sixteen months, death 
came to the presidential mansion, and on the 9th of July, 1850, the brave hero 
died, at the age of sixty-five years. He was the second chief magistrate who 
had died while in office, and was succeeded by the Yice-President, Millard 



Mllmore. 



SILAS WRIOKT. 

THE origin and career of Silas Wright, presents a striking illustration of tho 
fact that, under the fostering care of our free institutions, genius may lift 
its possessor to the pinnacle of fame and fortune, without the factitious aids of 
wealth and power which too frequently stand sponsors at tho baptism of great 
men, so called, in the elder world. Silas Wright was born at Amherst, Massa- 
chusetts, on the 24th of May, 1795, and while he was an infant, his parents settled 
in Weybridge, Vermont. There he received his early education, entered Mid- 
dlebury College, as a student, at a proper age, and was graduated in 1815. 
While yet a student, his active mind grasped the subject of politics. War with 
Great Britain was then progressing, and young Wright became quite distinguished 
as a democratic politician, in Middlebury. After leaving college, he studied law 
at Sandy Hill, New York, and commenced its practice, in 1819. The same year 
he was induced to settle at Canton, New York, and there he lived the remainder 
of his days, except when absent on public duty. His superior abilities were 
soon manifested, and he was successively chosen to fill several local offices. Ho 
also took pride in military matters, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general of 
militia. As a magistrate, he always endeavored to allay feuds and keep tho 
people from litigation ; and as a lawyer, he conscientiously pursued the same 
course. 

In 1823, he was elected to tho State Senate, from St. Lawrence county, that 
district then embracing that and eight others of the sparsely-settled counties of 
Northern New York.' He soon became a distinguished member of the Senate, 
as a sound logician, fluent speaker, and industrious laborer in the public cause.2 
He remained there about three years, when he was elected to a seat in Congress, 
in 1826. There he took an active part in the discussions concerning a tariff, and 
cognate measures. At the next election ho was a candidate for Congress, but 
tlie omission of the word jmiio?', in printing his name on the tickets, caused his 
defeat. In 1829, he was appointed comptroller of the State of- New York, and 
was reelected to the same office, by the legislature, in 1832. The following 
year that body chose him to represent New York in the Senate of the United 
States, which position he occupied with great honor to himself and his country 
until he was elected governor of that State, in 1 844. The nomination for the 

1. Saratoga, Montgomery, Hamilton, Washington, Warren, Clinton, Essex, and Franklin. 

2. It is said that on one occasion, whilea member of the Senate, he was indirectly offered the sum of 
fifty thousand dollars, if he would feign sickness the next day, be absent from his seat, and not oppose, 
with his great influence, a bill for chartering certain banks. He spurned the bribe with honest indigna- 
tion, and he was so much agitated by the occurrence during that night, tliat he came very near being 
absent from his seat the next day, on account of real illness!^ 



B56 JESSE BUEL. 

office of y ice-President of the United States was tendered to him by a national 
convention, the same year, but was deelinedi Two years before he liad declined 
a nomination for governor, and also tlie appointment of judge of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. Governor Wriglit was again nominated for chief 
magistrate of his adopted State, in 3 846, but lost his election. At the close of 
his official term he retired to private life, followed by the grateful appreciation 
of his countrymen. There he seemed to be gathering strength for greater and 
more brilliant achievements in the field of statesmanship, to which his countrymen 
desired to invite him, when death came suddenly, and laid him in the grave. 
He had consented to deliver the annual address at the State Agricultural Fair, 
to be held at Saratoga Springs. While preparing for that service, he was at- 
tacked by acute disease, and expired within two hours afterward. That event 
occurred on the 27th of August, 1847, wlien he was a little more than fifty-two 
years of age. The people of St. Lawrence county have erected a beautiful 
monument over his grave at Canton, composed of pure white marble, from the 
Dorset quarry. The citizens of Wcybridge, where he spent his earlier years, 
have also erected a monument to liis memory. It is a shaft of white marble, 
about thirty-eight feet in height, standing upon a pedestal. 



JESSE BXJEE. 

IT has been justly said of Jesse Buel, one of the most eminent patrons oY Agricui 
ture, in this country, that "in example not less than in precept, he may be 
said to have conferred blessings upon the times in which he lived — blessings that 
will continue to fructify, and ripen into fruit, long after his body shall have mingled 
with his favorite earth." Mr. Buel was a native of Coventry, Connecticut, where 
he was born on the 4th of January, 1778, and was the youngest of fourteen chil- 
dren of the same mother. When Jesse was twelve years of age, his father made 
Rutland, Yermont, his residence ; and there, two years afterward, the lad, at his 
own urgent request, was apprenticed to a printer. At the age of eighteen j-ears 
he purchased from his employer, the unexpired term of his apprenticeship, worked 
as a journeyman first in the city of New York, and then in Lansingburg and 
Waterford, and, in 1797, commenced the pubhcation of a political newspaper at 
Troy. He married in 1801, made Poughkeepsie, in Dutchess county, his res- 
idence, and established a newspaper there. It was an imsuccessful enterprise, 
and Mr. Buel lost sufficient by it to make him a bankrupt. He left the scene of 
his disaster, went to Kingston, in Ulster county, and there, in 1803, he estab' 
lished a weekly paper, and continued it for ten years. Success attended him 
there. His daily life was marked by great diligence in business, and upright' 
ness in conduct. He obtained and deserved the public confidence, and, foil 
awhile, filled the office of judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Ulster county. 
In 1813, Judge Buel removed to Albany. He had accumulated some prop- 
erty, bore a high reputation, and with this capital, at the urgent solicitation of 
Judge Spencer and others, he assumed the editorial management of the Albany 
Argus. The following year he received the appointment of State printer, and 
held that lucrative office until 1820, when he sold out his interest in the Argm, 
disposed of his printing establishment, and upon a small farm near Albany com- 
menced his eminent career as a practical agriculturist. There, for nineteen years, 
he was engaged in those experiments in Agriculture and Horticulture which havo 
rendered his name famous throughout our Union, and in Europe. Desirous of in- 



OSCEOLA. 357 



ducing others to adopt his improvements, he commenced the pubhcation of the Gal- 
tivator, in 1834, under the auspices of the New York State Agricultural Society, 
and conducted it with great ability and success, until his death. In addition to his 
contributions to that paper, he wrote and delivered many addresses before agri- 
cultural societies in his own State and elsewhere ; and associations of cultivators 
delighted to honor him with tokens of their esteem. lie was chosen honorary 
member of the Lower Canada Agricultural Society; the London Horticultural 
Society ; the Royal and Central Society of Agriculture at Paris, and of the Society 
of Universal Statistics in the same city. For several years, at intervals, Judge 
Buel was a member of the New York legislature; and, in 1836, he was an un- 
successful candidate for the office of governor of the State. At the time of his 
death he was one of the regents of ths University. His final departure occurred 
at Danbury, Connecticut, on the 6th of October, 1839, when lie was in the sixty- 
S3cond year of his age. He was then on a journey to New Haven, to address 
an ^'Agricultural Society there, when death suddenly prostrated him. 



OSCEOLA. 

17 ADINGr, fading, fading ! Such is the doom of the Aborigines of our Continent. 
Civilization is to them like the sunbeams upon snow or hoar-frost. They 
are fast melting in its presence ; and the burden of many a sad heart among the 
tribes is expressed in the touching lines of Schoolcraft — 

I will go to my tent and lie down in despair ; 

I will paint me with black and will sever my hair ; 

I will sit on the shore when the huriicane blows, 

And reveal to the G-orl of ihe Tempest, my woes. 

I will weep for a season, on bitterness fed, 

For ray kindred are goue to the hills of the dead; 

But they died not of hunger, or ling'ring decay — 

The hand of the white man hath swept them away !'' 

From time to time, some daring spirit, bolder than his fellows, and fired with 
patriotic zeal and burning hatred, like Philip or Pontiac, have, in more recent times, 
made desperate efforts to retain the land of their fathers when the hand of the 
white man had grasped it. Among the latest of these gallant men was Osceola, 
a brave chief of the Seminoles. His people yet remain on their ancient domain, 
the everglades of Florida. They were a remnant of the once powerful Creek 
Confederacy ; and while other tribes were emigrating to the wilderness beyond 
the Mississippi, they pertinaciously clung to the graves and the hunting-grounds 
of their ancestors. ' A treaty made by some of the chief men, which provided 
f r; their removal beyond the Father of Waters, wa^. repudiated by the nation. 
Mi3anop7, as its representative, de.-lared that the Indians had been deceived, 
ai 1 refused to go. The government of the United States resolved to remove 
th3n by force. A long and cruel war was kindled, in 1835 : and at the be- 
ghining of the contest, a young chief of powerful frame, noble bearing, and keen 
sigacity, appeared as leader of the warriors. It was Osceola. By common 
consent the Seminoles regarded him as their general-in-chief and destined liber- 
ator. With all the cunning of a Tecumseh and bravery of a Philip, he was so 
successful in stratagem, skilful in manoeuvres, and gallant in conflict, that he 
balH^d the efforts of the United States' troops sent against him, for a long time. 
For more than two years the war was prosecuted vigorously amid the swamps 
of the great Southern Peninsula, and a vast amount of blood and treasure was 
wasted in vain attempts to subdue the Indians. Some of the most accomplished 



358 WILLIAM C. C. CLAIBORNE. 

commanders in the army of the RepubUc — Scott, Taylor, Gaines, and Josuid — 
were there, but Osceola, in his way, out-generalled them all. At last he was 
subdued by treachery. He was invited to a conference in the camp of General 
Jesup, under the protection of a flag. Several chiefs, and about seventy war- 
riors, accompanied him ; and when they supposed themselves safe under the 
pledges of the white man's honor and the sacred flag, they were seized and con- 
fined. Osceola was sent in irons to Charleston, and immured in Fort Moultrie. 
This act of treachery was defended by General Jesup by the plea of Osceola's 
known infidelity to solemn promises, and a desire to put an end to blood-shed 
by whatever means he might be able to employ. It was the logic of mercy 
enforced by dishonor. 

The misfortune of Osceola was too great, oven for his mighty spirit. That 
spirit, chafed like a leashed tiger, would not bend until the i^hysical frame of the 
chief gave way, and a f.^tal fever seized it. Gradually the stern warrior assumed 
the weakness of a little child; and on the 31st of January, 1839, Osceola died in 
his military prison. Since then a small monument to his memory has been 
erected near the entrance-gate to Port Moultrie.' His capture and death was 
the severest blow yet fait by the Seminoles. The spirit of the nation was broken, 
yet they fowglit on Avith desperation. They did not finally yield until 1842. A 
remnant continued to inhabit the everglades of Florida. They weie quiet but 
defiant. 



WILLIAM c. c. claibornp:. 

WHEN", early in the year 1804, intelligence reached the government of the 
United States, that the broad and beautiful territory of Louisiana l;ad 
become a part of the Republic by actual cession, and the importance of appoint- 
ing an extremely judicious man to govern the mixed population of Spaniards, 
Frenchmen, and Negroes, was palpable. President Jefferson, to the astonishment 
of many old and wise heads, sent thither a handsome young man of nine-and- 
twenty years, a descendant of one of the earliest settlers in Virginia. That 
young man was William Charles Cole Claiborne, who was born in 1775, He 
was nursed in the bosom of patriotic sentiment, and grew to manhood in the 
atmosphere of noble efforts in the founding of a new and glorious empire. He 
was a student in William and Mary College, for a while, but completed his edu- 
cation at an academy in Richmond. He inherited nothing but a good education 
and excellent character, and with these he entered upon the battle of life, con- 
fident of victories. With a determination to help himself, he went to JSTew York, 
and sought employment under Mr. Beckley (with whom he was acquainted), 
then clerk to the Federal House of Representatives. He succeeded, and at the 
age of sixteen years the accomplished and resolute boy ate bread earned by his 
own industry. He became perfect master of the French language, and was very 
useful to his employer, in many ways. His talent and sprightliness attracted 
the attention of Jefferson, then Washington's Secretary of State, and that states- 
man gave the youthful Claiborne many of the encouragements which young men 
need. From General John Sevier, then a member of Congress, he received 
many kind attentions, and his young ambition grew apace. The profession of 
the law opened a high road to distinction, and he left New York, studied Black- 
stone, in Richmond, for three months, was then admitted to practice, and, bid- 

1. See sketch of General Moultrie. The present fortress, near the site of the palmetto fort of the Kcto- 
lution, is a strong, regular work ; one of the finest belonging to the United States. 



WILLIAM C. C. CLAIBOENE. 



359 




^^^^^^^^^.^^^ ^, ^^ -^ ^/::t^^cr-^<^t^ 

ding adieu to the charms of society in the East, he went over the mountains, 
and established himself in the present Sullivan county, Tennessee. In eloquence, 
he exceeded every man west of the Blue Ridge, and in less than two years, ho 
was at the head of his profession, and was called hundreds of miles to manage 
law-suits. A yearning for home took possession of his feelings, and he was about 
to return to Richmond, when Tennessee prepared to enter the Union as a sover- 
eign State, and Claiborne was chosen a member of a convention to form a con- 
stitution. In that convention he began his political career ; and he was regarded 
by all as a prodigy, for ho was then only about twenty-ono years of age. His 
friend, Sevier, was elected governor of the now State. One of his first acts wr.s 
the appointment of young Claiborne as a judge of the Supremo Court of law and 
equity, of thff budding commonwealth. Ho was not yet twenty -two years of 
age, yet he entered upon his duties with all the gravity and legal wisdom of 
many jurists of fifty. The ermine did not rest long upon his shoulders, for tho 
people, by an immense majority, elected him their representative in Congress. 
He was again triumphantly reelected, and there he repaid the kindness he had 
received from Mr. Jefferson, by giving him his vote for President of the United 
States, In that Congress Claiborne greatly distinguished himself by his learning, 
logic, and eloquence. 

Soon after President Jefferson's accession, he appointed Mr. Claiborne govern- 
or of the Mississippi Territory, on the request of the people there ; and on the 
23d of November, 1801, he was enthusiastically received at Natchez, the seat of 



860 JAMES MII.NOR., 



government. He found society heaving with the turbulence of faction ; he poured 
th3 oil of conciliation upon the billows, and they soon became calm. He mar- 
ried a beautiful and wealthy girl in Nashville^ and passed the two years that ho 
was governor of Mississippi, in the greatest happiness. His duties of governor 
of Louisiana, to which office he was appointed early in 1804, weie more arduous 
and perplexing, yet he performed them witli signal ability and success. His 
justice and urbanity endeared him to all classes; and when, in 1812, Louisiana 
became an independent State, the people chose him for their governor, by an 
almost unanimous vote. He was in the executive chair during the memorable 
invasion of the British, and t]ieir repulse at New Orleans by General Jackson, 
early in 1815. On that occasion Governor Claiborne wisely and generously sur- 
rendered to Jackson all power and command, and, under that general's orders, 
the magistrate led a large body of the militia of his State. His long career as 
governor of Louisiana terminated in 1817, when he was chosen to represent that 
State in the Federal Senate. But his useful life closed too soon to allow him to 
serve his countrymen any more. He died of a disease of the liver, in the city 
of New Orleans, on the 23d of November, 1817, in the forty-second year of his 
a,ge. The municipal authorities decreed a public funeral, and money was ap- 
priated to erect a marble monument to his memory. 



JAMES MILNOR, 

IT has been the privilege of few men, who have passed their lives in public 
labors, to be so warmly, tenderly, and universally loved, as the Rev. James 
Milnor, D. D., the rector of St. George's Church, New York, for almost thirty 
years. And it has been the privilege of very few men to be so eminently use- 
ful as he in all that pertains to the well-being of his fellow creatures. In the 
domestic circle, he was reverenced for his unalloyed goodness ; in the legal pro- 
fession he was called "the honest lawyer"; as a legislator he was beneficent 
and patriotic ; as a Christian he was without guile ; and in the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church, he was one of the most prominent of all her evangelical clergy, 
yet in nothing wanting as one of her most loyal sons. 

James Milnor was the son of Quaker parents, and was born in Philadelphia 
on the 20th of June, 1773. He was educated partly in the Philadelphia Acade- 
my, and partly in the University of Pennsylvania. To relieve his father of 
heavy expenses ojl his account, James left the University before taking his de- 
gree, and at the age of about sixteen years, commenced the study of law. He 
was admitted to the bar in 1794, before he was quite twenty-one years of age, 
and commenc3d practice in Norristown. There, among a preponderating Ger- 
man population, he was very successful, he having acquired a knowledge of the 
language at an early age. After remaining there about three years, he returned 
to Philadelphia, and, in 1799, married the lady who yet [1855] survives him. 
That ceremony having been performed by "a hireling priest," (the bride was an 
Episcopalian, by education) contrary to the discipline of Friends, Mr. Milnor 
was disowned, and his membership in the Society ceased forever. 

In the year 1800, Mr. Milnor was chosen a member of the city councU. He 
held the same position from 1805 until 1809 ; and during the latter year, he was, 
its President. He was extremely popular among all classes; and in 1810, he 
was elected to a seat in Congress by the Federal vote in his district. There he 
remained until the Spring of 1813, and was a steady and consistent opponent 
ef the war^ and the belligerent measures of the Administration, He took a 



JAMES MILNOR. 361 



prominent part in the debates; and on account of a report of one of his speeches, 
which appeared in a Fhikxdelphia paper, Henry Clay, then Speaker of tho 
House, challenged him to fight a duel. Mr. Milnor bravely refused, first be- 
cause Mr. Clay had no right to call him to account for his public acts, and 
secondly because he was opposed, in principle, to the cowardly practice of duel- 
ling. There the matter ended, and in after years, when Mr. Milnor was an 
eminent minister of the Gospel, he and the great statesman met on the most 
friendly terms. 

It was during his Congressional career, that religious truths were pressed 
with greatest force upon his attention. He had been careless for many years ; 
then he stood wavering between the doctrine of universal salvation and the 
orthodoxy of the day, but when his term of service in the national council had 
ended, his mind fully comprehended those great truths which he afterward so 
eloquently proclaimed, and he abandoned tho legal profession and prepared for 
entrance upon the Gospel ministry. • He was admitted to the communion by 
Bishop White, and was ordained a deacon by that excellent prelate, in August, 
1814, Twelve months afterward he was ordained a presbyter, and labored for 
about a year as an assistant minister i i the Associated Churches, in Philadel- 
phia. In 1816, he was called to the rectorship of St. George's Church, in New 
York, and commenced his long and useful labors there i'l September of that 
year. The Bishop of tho diocese (Hobart) had been his play-fellow in boyhood, 
and Mr. Milnor anticipated pleasant pastoral relations with him. These antici- 
pations were net realized. The rector of St. George's would indulge his heart 
and lips in tho utterance of extemporaneous prayer at occasional religious meet- 
ings, and he also joined heartily with other denominations of Christians, im- 
mediately after his arrival in New York, in the formation of tho Bible Society; 
and during the remainder of his life he was continually associated with disciples 
of every name, in other works of Christian benevolence. These were grave of- 
fences in tho eyes of the Bishop, and a harmony of views, on these subjects, 
never existed between the prelate and the presbyter.2 

Dr. Milnor was extremely active in the promotion of schemes of Christian 
benevolence. Ho was one of the founders of tho American Tract Society, in 
1824, and continued to be one of its most active members luitii his death. The 
Institution for the Deaf and Dumb ; the Orphan Asylum ; the Home for aged 
indigent Females, and many kindred institutions, felt his fostering care. In 
1 830 he went to l<]ngland as a delegate of the American Bible Society to the 
British and Foreign Bible Society ; and ever afterward his visit there was re- 
forred to with the greatest pleasure by all who enjoyed the privilege of his com- 
pany and ministrations. He visited Paris, then the Isle of Wight, and then 
made a general tour through England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, everywhere 
engaged in the duties of a Christian minister, and human benefactor. Ho re- 
turned home in the Autumn of the same year, bringing with him a vast amount 
of useful information for the various associations with which he was connected. 
In the excitements produced by Tractarianism, he was bold in the maintenance 
of evangelical truth, yet always kind and conciliatory. He labored on zeal- 
ously until the Spring of 1845, when he was summoned away suddenly by a 

1 On one of bis visits home, during his term in Congress, his little daughter, Anna, met him as he en- 
tered the house, and said, "Papa, do you know I can read?" "No, let me hear you," he replied. 
She selected the words, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." This incident made a 
great impression on his mind. 

2 Bishop Hobart objected to the prayer meetings, which the members of St. (xeorge's Church were in 
Ihe habit of holding, and whicli Dr. Milnor warmly encouraged, though he did not always attend them. 
On one of those evenings, the Bishop was in the rectory, and requested Dr. Milnor to go and dismiss the 
assembly. " Bishop," lie said firmly, " I dare not prevent my parishioners from meeting for prayer ; 
but if you are willing to take the responsibility of dismissing them, you have my permission." The 
praying members remained undisturbed. 



362 RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS. 

disease which had twice brought him to death's door. On the evening of the 
8th of April, 1845, a meeting of the Directors of the Deaf and Dumb Institu- 
tion was held at his study. Five hours afterward his spirit was in the imme- 
diate presence of his divine Master. 



RETURN JONATHAN MEIGS. 

A BRIGrHT-EYED Connecticut girl was disposed to coquette with her lover, 
iV Jonathan Meigs ; and on one occasion, when he had pressed his suit with 
great earnestness, and asked for a positive answer, she feigned coolness, and 
would give him no satisfaction. The lover resolved to be trifled with no longer, 
and bade her farewell, for ever. She perceived her error, but he was allowed 
to go far down the lane before her pride would yield to the more tender emotions 
of her heart. Then she ran to the gate and criedj " Return, Jonathan ! Return, 
Jonathan!" He did return, they were joined in wedlock, and in commemoration 
of these happy words of the sorrowing girl, they named their first child. Return 
Jonathan. That child, afterward a hero in our War for Independence, a noble 
Western pioneer, and a devoted friend of the Cherokees, was born at Middletown, 
Connecticut, in December, 1740. He received a good common education, and 
learned the trade of a hatter. Of his earlier life we have no important informa- 
tion ; and he first appears in public at the opening of the Revolution. He was 
then thirty-five years of age ; and one of the companies of minute-men, in his 
native town, had chosen him their captain. When intelligence of bloodshed at 
Lexington reached him, he marched his company to Cambridge, and soon re- 
ceived the appointment of major, from Governor Trumbull. In the ensuing 
Autumn, he accompanied Arnold in his memorable expedition from the Kenne- 
bec to the St. Lawrence. He participated in the attack on Quebec, at the close 
of the year, and was made a prisoner there. His fellovv'-captives were much in- 
debted to him for comforts during the remainder of the dreary Winter. In the 
course of the following year he was exchanged, and, receiving the commission 
of colonel from the Continental Congress, he raised a regiment in Connecticut, 
which was known as The Leather-cap Battalion. With a part of his force 
(seventy in number), he made a bold attack upon the British post at Sag Har- 
bor, east end of Long Island, in May, 1777, where he destroyed a good deal of 
proport}'-, and carried off almost a Imndred prisoners, without losing a man. 
Congress gave him thanks and an elegant sword, for that exploit. 

In the capture of Stony Point, on the Hudson, in 1779, Colonel Meigs and his 
regiment, under the direction of General Wayne, performed a gallant part. He 
was one of the first to mount the parapet and enter the fort. He remained in 
active service until the close of the war, and then sat down cftietly in his native 
town, to enjoy the honors he had so bravely won. His knowledge of surveying, 
acquired in early life, was now called into pi-actice. He was appointed one of 
the surveyors of the Ohio Land Company,' and in the Spring of 1778, he went 
over the mountains, and halted at Jilarietta, the head-quarters of emigrants to 
that region. He at once became a prominent man among the settlers ; and soon 
after the arrival of General St. Clair, as governor of the newly-organized North- 
western Territory, Colonel Meigs was appointed one of the judges of the Court 
of Quarter Sessions- He was also appointed clerk of the same court, and pro- 
thonotary of the Court of Common Pleas. He was much engaged in surveying, 
until interrupted by the Indian war. At the time of the treaty at Greenville, in 

1. See sketch of Rufus Putnam. 



BENJAMIN WRIGHT. 363 

]TJi5, Colonel Meigs was commissary of clothing; and in all his duties, public 
and private, he exhibited such a kindly heart, perfect justice, and unselfish 
benevolence, that he won the esteem of the white people and the Indians. 

In 1798, Colonel Meigs was elected a member of the Territorial legislature; 
and, in 1801, President Jefferson appointed him Indian agent, among the Cher- 
okees, where he resided until his death, which occurred at the Cherokee agency, 
on the 28th of January, 1823, at the age of eighty-three years. The Indians 
with whom he lived so long, loved and revered him as a father. Even until the 
last week of his life, he engaged with them in their athletic sports. 



BENJAMIN WRiaPIT. 

THERE is an unwritten, early, and secret history of the great Erie Canal, 
which, if brought to the light of to-day, would give to men a title to true 
renown, on whom eulogium has bestowed only a passing remark. Among these, 
the names of Hawley, Brooks, M'Neil, Ellicott, Watson, Eddy, and Wright, 
would appear conspicuous. The latter was a native of Weathersfield, Connec- 
ticut, where he was born on the 10th of October, 1770. His parents wore 
humble, and his opportunities for early education were very limited. At the 
age of sixteen years he went to live with an uncle, in Litchfield county, where 
he acquired a knowledge of surveying. When in his nineteenth year, he ac- 
companied his father and ftuuily to the wilderness of central New York, and 
settled at Fort Stmwix, now Rome. All beyond was the "Indian country." 
Settlers were locating rapidly in that region, and young Wright was constantly em- 
ployed in surveying lands. Within four years [1792-1796], he surveyed over five 
hundred thousand acres of land in the counties of Oneida and Oswego. His fame 
for speed and accuracy in his occupation became wide spread, and his services 
were constantly sought, in all directions. He was employed by the Western In- 
land Lock navigation Comjjany, in their efforts to connect Lake Ontario and the 
Hudson river, by a canal between Oneida Lake and the Mohawk. He became the 
general agent of the proprietors of extensive tracts of land, in that region; and, 
in 1801, and again in 1807, he represented the district in the State legislature. 
During the latter year, Mr. Wright, Jesse Hawley, General M'Neil, and Judge 
Forman, discussed the fjasibility of making a canal through the Mohawk Valley, 
and westward, so as to connect Lake Erie with the Hudson. The legislature, 
at the suggestion of Forman and Wright," appropriated six hundred dollars for a 
preliminary survey. It was accomplished; and, in 1810, a board of Canal Com- 
missioners was appointed. Such were the incipient measures which led to a 
great result. Mr. Wright was very active, until operations were suspended by 
the war with Groat Britain. They were resumed, with vigor, in 1816, when 
Judge Goddes and Mr. Wright were charged with the construction of the Erie 
Canal. Under their direction the work went steadily on, until 1825, when the 
stupendous undertaking was completed.' 

In 1814, Mr, Wright was appointed one of the judges for Oneida county; and 
during the remainder of his ITe, he was either a consulting or chief engineer in 
the construction of almost every important work of internal improvement through- 
out the country. In 1835, he went to Cuba, by invitation of the authorities 
and capitalists there, to consult respecting a railroad from Havana to the in- 
terior of the island. After that he did not engage much in active life ; and on 
the 24th of August, 1842, he died, in the city of New York, when in the seventy- 
second year of his age. 

1. Sco sketch of Dewitt Clinton. 



864 



ADONIRAM JUDSON. 




ADONIRAM JUDSON. 

IN" the little parlor of the late Professor Stuart, at Andover, Massachusetts, on 
a sultry day in June, 1810, a few grave men consulted upon the expediency 
of forming a Foreign Missionary Society. A few pious and zealous young men, 
students in the Andover Theological Seminary, who ardently desired employ- 
ment in the missionary field of far-oS' India, had urged the propriety of such a 
measure. That consultation was favorable, and at the meeting of the General 
Association, the following day, at Bradford, an earnest memorial was presented, 
signed by four of those young men. The American Board of Commissioners for 
Foreign Missions, was then established;^ and in Februarj^, 1812, three of the 
signers of that memorial sailed for India, the pioneer American missionaries to 
the heathen in distant lands. The three were Adoniram Judson, jr. (author of 
the memorial), Jamuel Nott, jr., and Samuel Newell. 

Adoniram Judson was born at Maiden, Massachusetts, on the 9th of August, 
1788. His father was a Congregational clergyman, and cultivated the mind and 
heart of his promising boy with great care. He was graduated with highest 
honors at Brown University, in 1807, and after lingering, for a while, in great 
doubt upon the borders of the dank marsh of infidelity, the light of Christian 



1. The following gentlemen composed that first Board: John Treadwell (governor of Connectieul), 
Rev. Timothy Dwight, D.D., General Jedediah Huntington, Rev. Calvin Chapin, Rev. Joseph Ljmaii, 
D.D., Rev. Samuel Spring, D.D., William Bartlelt, Rev. Samuel Worcester, and Deacon Samuel H- 
Walley. 



ADONIRAM JUDSON. 865 



truth beckoned him away to the beautiful land of gospel blesshigs. Ho entered 
the Andover Theological Seminary, as a student. There he experienced a desire 
to preach the gospel to the heathen, and was about to ofter his services to the 
London Missionary Society, when, after much effort, the formation of tlie Amer- 
ican Board, above mentioned, opened tlio way for him. He married the lovely 
Ann Hasseltino, early in February, 1812, and, on the 19th of that month, sailed 
with her and otlier companions, for Calcutta. They reached that port in Juno 
following, and were lodged, for a short time, at the house of the eminent Baptist 
missionary, Dr. Carey, at Serampore. Compelled to leave the British East Indies, 
they fled to the Isle of France,' and from thence went to Rangoon, in Burmah. 
Mr. and Mrs. Judson had embraced Dr. Carey's views of baptism, were immersed 
by him, and were afterward sustained by the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, 
which was estabhshed in 1814. 

At Rangoon the missionaries employed themselves diligently in studying the 
Burmese language, and in otherwise preparing for labor in the great missionary 
field before them. They translated portions of Scripture and other words of in- 
struction concerning Christianity, into the Burmese language ; and the first fruit 
of their labors appeared in March, 1817, when an intelligent native came to 
them with an earnest desire for spiritual knowledge. A month later, Mr. Jud- 
son was allowed to preach to the people, publicly; and, in Juno following, tho 
first convert was baptized. Then tho heart of the missionary was filled with 
gladness, for he saw the dawning of a glorious morning for tho pagans of Bur- 
mah. He labored on hopefully, and now and then a disciple would appear. He 
prepared a small dictionary and a grammar, and many wero taught but few 
seemed profited. At the beginning of 1820, there were only ten converts, yet 
these were prepared to bo each at tho head of a cohort of disciples in after years, 
if Providence should call them to act. A printing-press, sent from SeraUipore, 
was erected at Rangoon, and a translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and 
some tracts, were printed and distributed among the people. In the sketch of 
Mrs, Judson, events from this period, until her return from America, and the 
close of the Burmese war with tlie English, have been glanced at, and need not 
be repeated here. After that, in a new town named Amherst, within territory 
ceded by the King of Ava to tho British, Mr. Judson and his missionary family 
resumed their labors, in 182G. There Mrs. Judson died; and soon afterward 
their little daughter was laid by her side under tho hope-tree. Eight years 
afterward, Mrs. Sarah Boardman, the widow of a missionary, became Mr. Jud- 
son's wife, and they labored on together with great zeal, at Rangoon, Amherst, 
and Maulmain. Dr. Judson had then just completed his wonderful task of 
translating the Holy Scriptures into the Burmese language. He was also em- 
ployed in forming a complete Burmese and English Dictionary, for the use of 
those who desired to learn tho language, as well as for the natives. At length 
the health of his second wife failed; and, in 1845, Dr. Judson started with her 
to visit his native land, after an absence of tvro and thirty years. Bereavement 
smote him on the voyage. In the harbor of St. Helena, his excellent wife died, 
and tho sorrowing husband left her body upon that lonely spot in the ocean. 
He reached Boston, with his children, in the Autumn of 1845, and was every 
where greeted with the most aftectionate reverence by Christians of every name. 
Hg remained in America until July, the following year, when he departed for his 
ehosen field of labor in Burmah, accompanied by a third wife,2 whom he had 
married a few weeks previously. But the day of his pilgrimage was drawing to 
a close. The tooth of disease began its work in the Autumn of 1849, and in 

1. See sketch of Mrs. Newell. 

2. The accomplished Miss Emily Chubbuck, better known in Ihe literary world as Fanny Forester. 
She and Dr. Judson accidentally met in Philadelphia, and were soon afterward mariied. 



S66 FELIX GEUNDY. 



April following, he sailed for the isle of Bourbon, for the benefit of his heaUli, 
leaving iiis wife and infants at Maulmain. They never met again on eartli. 
Nine days after he left them, being the 12th of April, 1850, that eminent servant 
of the Most High expired on ship-board, and his grave was made in the depths 
of the Indian Seas. His widow returned to America, and died in the arms of 
her mother, at ^milton, New York, on the 1st of June, 1854, 



FELIX ORUNDY. 

THE Great "West, including the broad valleys between the Alleghany Moun- 
tains and the Mississippi River, has ever been remarkable, since its redemp- 
tion from the wilderness state, for its redundancy of powerful men, physically 
and intellectually. The free air and the virgin soil ; the simple aliment and 
daily dangers of that region, seemed congenial to the birth and growth of true 
men. Among these, Felix Grundy, a distinguished member of Congress, was 
long eminent. He was born in Virginia, but nurtured in the wilderness, at a 
time when, to use his own forcible expression, " deatli was in almost every bush, 
and when every thicket concealed an ambuscade." His nativity occurred in 
Berkeley county, Virginia, on the 11th of September, 1777. Three years later, 
his father went, with his family, to Kentucky, then ''the dark and bloody ground." 
There the opportunities for education were small, but Felix was favored above 
the rest of his family, for, being the seventh son, he was destined, according to 
the superstitious notion of the times, to become a phj'sician. His father died 
when he was a lad, and his mother, a believer in omens, had him educated for 
the purpose of preparing for the medical profession. He finished his studies 
under Dr. Priestly, at Bardstown, Kentucky, when, preferring law, he disregarded 
the oracles, and prepared himself for the legal profession, under the charge of 
Colonel George Nichols, then one of the ablest counsellors west of the moun- 
tains. 

Grundy was admitted to practice, in 1798, soon rose to eminence, and, in 
1799, was chosen a member of the committee called to revise the constitution of 
Kentucky. He was elected to a seat in the legislature, the same year, and 
served in that body with distinction until 1806, when he was appointed one of 
the judges of Supreme Court of Errors and Appeals. He was soon afterward 
appointed chief justice of Kentucky, on the resignation of Judge Todd. The 
salary was insufficient for the wants of a growing family, and he resigned the 
office, in 1808, and removed to Nashville, Tennessee, where he prosecuted his 
vocation with industry and great success. He ranked highest among the crim- 
inal lawyers of the West, and practiced in the courts of several of the States. 
His eloquence was pure and forcible ; and he took the proud position, by general 
consent, as the head of the Tennessee bar. 

Mr. Grundy was elected to a seat in the Federal Congress, in 1811. The tem- 
pest of war was then brooding in the horizon, and Mr. Grundy was placed upon 
the Committee of Foreign Relations — the most important section of the House, 
at that time. He remained in that body until 1814, and was always a hearty, 
consistent, and sincere supporter of the administration of President Madison. 
At the close of the contest he returned to Nashville, and resumed the practice 
of his profession, but was soon called to duty in the State legislature, where he 
served for six years. In 1829, he was elected a Federal Senator, and by reelec- 
tion he held a seat there during the whole eight years of Jackson's administra- 
tion. From first to last, he was that chief magistrate's firm and cordial adherent 



RICHAKD M. JOHNSON. 367 

and supporter. In 1839, he Avas called to the cabinet of Mr. Van Buren, as 
attorney-general of the United States; and, in 1840, he was again elected to a 
seat in the Federal Senate. He was not permitted to occupy that exalted posi- 
tion again, for, in December following, at about the time when he would have 
presented his credentials there, death removed him to another sphere. Ho was 
then a little more than sixty -tliree years of age. 



RICHAKD M. JOHNSON. 

KENTUCKY is justly proud of her noble son, Richard M. Johnson; and 
throughout the Union his memory is cherished as one of the most enlight- 
ened, industrious, and honest of the servants of the Republic, whoso zeal and 
valor have been tried in the legislative council and on the field of battle. That 
distinguished man was born at Bryant's station," fivo miles north-oast of Lexing- 
ton, Kentucky, on the 17th of October, 1781. Ho received very little instruc- 
tion from books during boyhood, but at tho ago of fifteen years he acquired the 
rudiments of the Latin language. Ho then entered Transylvania University, as 
a student, and on leaving that institution, he studied law under the directions 
cf the eminent James Brown.2 Ho possessed great mental and physical energy, 
and these, acting in concert with perseverance and industry, soon placed him 
high in his profession. Before he was twenty years of age the foundation of 
his future popularity and fame was laid, and his patriotism and military genius 
were developed by circumstances which seemed to menace the peace then exist- 
ing between the United States and its Spanish neighbor in Louisiana. In vio- 
lation of then existing treaties, the Spanish authorities closed tho port of New 
Orleans against vessels of tho United States, in 1802. The peoplo of the South- 
west were greatly excited, and nothing but a resort to arms seemed likely to be 
the result. Young Johnson took an active part in tho public proceedings, in 
his section, and volunteered, with others, to make a descent upon New Orleans, 
in the event of a war. The difficulty was speedily settled by negotiations, the 
cloud passed by, and Johnson's military ardor was allowed to cool before other 
and more important events again awakened it. 

Before he was twenty-two years of age, young Johnson was elected to a seat 
in the Kentucky legislature, where he served two j-ears, to the great satisfaction 
of his constituents. In 1807, he was elected a representative in the Federal 
Congress, and took his seat there when he was just twenty-five years of ago. 
There he took a prominent position at the beginning, and was continually re- 
elected during the whole of tliat momentous period of our history, from 1807 
until 1819. In the meanwhile, he acquired that military distinction in tho 
service of his country, for which he is better known to the people, than as a 
sound and judicious legislator. Ho was a firm supporter of President Madison's 
war measures ; and when Congress adjourned, after the declaration of war against 
Great Britain, in 1812, he hastened home, raised a battalion of volunteers, and 
pushed forward toward the Canada frontier in the West, bearing the commission 
of colonel, given to him by Governor Shelby. At tJie close of Autumn, he laid 
aside his sword, took his seat in Congress, worked faithfully in the prosecution 
of measures for the public defence, and when the adjournment came, he went 

1. That station was settled in 1779, by four brothers, named Bryant, one of whom married a sister of 
the renowned Daniel Boone. These stations v/ero usually palisaded log-houses, arranged for protection 
against the Indians. 

2. See sketch of James Brown. 



•368 ANN" HASSELTINE JUDSON. 

iiome and called another regiment of volunteers to the field. Unucy the com- 
mand of General Harrison, he was the chief actor in the sanguinary battle on 
the Thames, in Canada West, in October, 1813, when the Americans gained 
such a decisive victory over the combined forces of British regulars, under Proc- 
tor, and fifteen hundred Indians, under the renowned Tecumseh, that it ended 
the war in the West. Colonel Johnson led the division against the Indians, and 
he was in the thickest of the fight during the whole contest. Even when his 
bridle-arm was shattered, and his horse was reeling fi'om the loss of blood, ho 
fought on, encouraged his men, and put the Indians to flight. When ho was 
borne from the field, there were twenty-five bullet-holes in his person, his cloth- 
ing, and his horse. He was taken to Detroit, and from thence was borne home, 
in great pain. In February following, though not able to walk, he took his scr.t 
in Congress. He was every where greeted by the people with wildest enthusiasm 
as the Hero of the West. 

Colonel Johnson retired f-om Congress, m 1819, and was immediately elected 
a member of his State legislature. He had ^"rst taken his seat iu that body, 
when it chose him to represent Kentucky ir the Federal Senate. He entered 
that assembly, as a member, in December. 1819, and served his constituents and 
the country faithfully until 1829, when he was again elected to a seat in the 
Lower House. There he remained until March, 1837, when he bscame president 
of the Senate, having been elected Vice-President Oi the United States in the 
preceding Autumn. After four yenrs of dignified service m the Senate, he re- 
tired from public life, and passed the remainder of his days on his farm in Scott 
county, Kentucky, except a brief period of service in his State legislature.' He 
was engaged in that service, at Frankfort, when he was prostrated by paralysis, 
and expired on the 15th of JsTovember, 1850. His State lias erected a beautiful 
marble monument to his memory, in the cemetery at Frankfort. 



ANN HASSELTINE JUDSON. 

WHEN we glance retrospectively over the field of modern missionary labor, 
we see no form more lovely in all that constitutes loveliness ; no heart 
more heroic, and no hand more active iu the service of the Great Master, than 
that of the first wife of Adoniram Judson, the eminent American missionary in 
Burmah. She appears upon the page of missionary history like an illuminated 
initial letter, for she was the pioneer in the service — the first American woman 
who volunteered to carry the Gospel to the pagans of the old world. 

Ann Hasseltine was born in Bradford, Massachusetts, on the 22d of December, 
1V89. She was a gay and active girl, full of enterprise, eager in the pursuit of 
knowledge, extremely beautiful in person, and lovely in all her ways. She was 
educated at the Bradford Academy, where she always bore off the palm of su- 
perior scholarship. On the 5th of February, 1812, she Avas married to Adoniram 
Judson, who had been appointed one of the first American missionaries to India ; 
and twelve days afterward she sailed, with Harriet Newell and others, for Cal- 
cutta. On the passage, she and her husband embraced the principles of the 
Baptists, and were baptized on their arrival at Calcutta, in September following. 
When, as has been observed in the sketch of Harriet NeweU, the American 



1. Colonel .Johnson was the author of the laws which aholished imprisonment for debt, in Kentucky ; 
and of the famous report in Congress, against the discontinuance of the mail on Sunday. He is greatly 
revered for his unwearied eflforts in behalf of the soldiers of the Revolution, and of the "war of 1812, who 
asked Congress for pensions or relief. 



ANN HASSELTINE JUDSON. 



360 




missionaries were ordered to quit India, Mr. and Mrs. Judson sailed to the Islo 
of France, and there they heard of the death of their beloved female friend. 
They remained there until the following . July, when they went to Rangoon, in 
Burmah, and there began to cultivate the missionary field in earnest. Other 
missionaries joined them there, but death took them awa}^, and in 1820 Mr. and 
Mrs. Judson alone remained in the vineyard. Disease, incident to the climate, 
now began to manifest its power upon Mrs. Judson, and at the close of the Sum- 
mer of 1821, she went first to Calcutta, then to England, and finally returned to 
America in September, 1822. After remaining a few weeks with her friends at 
Bradford, she accepted an invitation to pass the Winter in Baltimore, in the 
family of her husband's brother. There she wrote an interesting History of the 
Burman Mission^ in a series of letters to Mr. Butterworth, a member of Parlia- 
ment, in whose family she had tarried while in England. 

In June, 1823, Mrs. Judson again sailed for the field of missionary labor, with 
renewed bodily strength and increased earnestness of purpose, and joined her 
husband in December following. A few days afterward they started for Ava, 
the capital of Burmah, and had just completed their preparations for missionary 
effort there, when war between the Burmese and the British government of 
Bengal, broke out. Mr. Judson was seized, cruelly treated, and kept a prisoner 
by the Burman government for more than eighteen months, half of the time in 
triple fetters, and two months in five pair. The labors of Mrs. Judson, during 
tHiat time, form one of the most wonderful chapters in the record of female horo- 

24 



370 JOSEPH hopkinson:. 

ism. Day after day she made intercessions before government officers for tho 
liberation of lier husband and other prisoners* but to no purpose; and every day 
she walked two miles to carry them food prepared with her own hands. With- 
out her ministrations they must have perished. She had readily learned tho 
language ; and finally her appeals, written in elegant Burmese, were given to the 
Emperor, when no ofiBcer dared mention the subject to him. The sagacious 
monarch, trembling for the fate of his kingdom, (for a victorious English army 
was marching toward his capital,) saw safety in employing her, and he appointed 
her his embassadress to General Sir Archibald Campbell, the British leader, to 
prepare the way for a treaty. She was received by the British commander with 
all the ceremony of an envoy extraordinary. She managed the afiairs of tho 
Emperor with perfect fidelity, and a treaty was made through her influence, for 
which the proud monarch gave her great praise. She secured the release of her 
husband and his fellow-prisoners, and they all recommenced their missionary 
work. 

When the intense excitement which she had so long experienced, was over, 
Mrs. Judson felt the reaction with teiTible force. This, added to her great cuf- 
ferings, prostrated her strength, and in the course of a few months, while Mr. 
Judson was absent at another post of duty, that noble disciple of Jesus fell 
asleep and entered upon her blessed rest. Her spirit departed on the 24th of 
October, 1826, when she was almost thirty-seven years of age. A few months 
afterward her only surviving child died. They both lie buried beneath a spread- 
ing Iwpe-iree, near the banks of the Salween river. She is one of tho most be- 
loved in memory of the laborers during the earliest missionary seed time, and 
she will have her full reward of sheaves at the harvest. 



JOSEPH HOPKINSON. 

THE author of our spirited national song, Hail Columlia, was highly distin- 
guished for other intellectual achievements. But that production was suffi- 
cient to confer upon him the crown of earthly immortality.' He was a sou of 
Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and 
was born in Philadelphia, on the 12th of November, 1770. He was educated in 
the University of Pennsylvania, and then studied law, first with Judge Wilson, 
and afterward with William Rawle. He was admitted to the bar, at the close of 
1791, and commenced its practice at Easton, on the Delaware. He was begin- 
ning to be quite successful there, when he returned to Philadelphia, and there 
took a high rank in his profession. He was the leading counr^el of Dr. Rush in 

1. That soDgr was produced almost impromptu, for a special occasion, A young man named Fox, at- 
tached to the Philadelphia theatre, chiefly as a singer, was about lo have a benetit. At that time [1198] 
there was a prospect of war between the tJnifed States and France, and Fox. anxious to produce some 
novelty for his benefit, conceived the idea of having: an original song that should arous • the national 
spirit. The theatrical poets tiled to produce one, but failed. The benefit was to take place on Monday, 
and on the previous Saturday afternoon. Fox called on Judge Hopkinson (who had known him from a 
school-boy), and asked him to write a song for him, adapted to the popular air of The President''^ March. 
Hopkinson consented, and with the object of awakening a iyn\\ ATnerican f^pirit, without offence to 
eitlier of the violent political parties of the day, he wrote Hail Columhia. It was received by the audience 
at the theatre with the wildest applause, and was encored again and aerain. The words flashed all over 
the land, as soon as the press could conduct them, and were every where electrical in their effect. By 
common consent. Hail Cohimhia became, and remains, a national anthem. It is an interesting fact in 
this connection, that TJie PresidenVs March was composed, in 1789, by a German, named Feyles, leader 
of the orchestra of the old theatre in John Street, New York ; and was first performed there on the oc- 
casion of Presideni Washington's first visit at that play-house, bv invitation of the managers. This fact 
was mentioned to the writer, by Mr, Custis, the adopted son of Washington, who was then a lad, and ttse 
present on the occasion. 



MOSES BROWN. 371 



his famous suit against William Cobbett, in 1199, and also in the insurgent trials 
before Judge Chase, in 1800. The legal knowledge, acute logic, and eloquent 
advocacy which he displayed on those occasions, caused Judge Chase to employ 
Mr, Hopkinson as his counsel, when, afterward, he was impeached before the 
Senate of the United States. His eftbrts in behalf of Judge Chase before that 
august tribunal, drew forth the warmest voluntary oulogiums from Aaron Burr, 
and other distinguished men. 

In 1815, and again in 1817, Mr. Hopkinson was elected a representative of 
Philadelphia in the Federal Congress, and ranked among the first of the many 
sound statesmen who graced that body at that interesting period of our liolitical 
history. His speeches against re-chartering the Bank of the United States, and 
on the Seminole war and other topics of interest, were regarded as exceedingly 
able. His constituents would gladly have reelected him, in 1819, but he pre- 
ferred the retirement of private life. 

At the close of his second term in Congress, Mr. Hopkinson made his residence 
at Bordentown, in New Jersey, and was soon elected to a seat in the legislature 
of that State. After an absence of three years, he resumed the practice of his 
profession, in Philadelphia, in which he continued until 1828, when President 
Adams appointed him a judge of the United States Court, for the Eastern Dis- 
trict of Pennsylvania. That oflEico had been filled by his father and grandflither ; 
and he performed its duties with dignity and marked ability, until his death. 
Judge Hopkinson was a member of the convention which met at Harrisburg, in 
May, 1831, to revise the constitution of Pennsylvania. He was chairman of the 
judiciary committee in that body, and eloquently sustained a report which he 
submitted, in a long and brilliant speech. Judge Hopkinson was very public- 
spirited, and took part in many movements intended for the moral and intellectual 
advancement of his fellow-citizens. At the time of his death he was one of the 
vice-presidents of the American Philosophical Society; a trustee of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania; and the president of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine 
Arts, of which he was the chief founder. For more than twenty years he was 
the intimate and confidential friend of Joseph Bonaparte, who owned, and lived 
upon, a fine estate at Bordentown. During the ex-king's absence. Judge Hop- 
kinson always managed his affairs ; and he was one of the two executors of M^ 
will. Judge Hopkinson died at Philadelphia, on the 15th of January, 1842, at 
the age of a little more than seventy-one years. 



MOSES BROWN. 

AN" eminently good man was lost to earth when the spirit of Moses Brown, 
one of the founders of the Rhode Island College (afterward called Brown 
University), departed for its home. He was the youngest of four brothers, who 
were all remarkable for pubhc spirit, generous enterprise, and practical benevo' 
lence. He was born at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1738. Having lost his 
father while he was yet a small boy, he left school at the age of thirteen years, 
and made his residence with a paternal uncle, an eminent and wealthy merchant 
of Providence. There he was trained to useful habits and a mercantile pro- 
fession ; and in the bosom of that excellent home he found a treasure in a pretty 
cousin, the daughter of his patron, whom he married, in 1764. Young Brown 
had commenced mercantile business on his own account the previous year, in 
connection with his three brothers. After ten years' close application, he retired 



JOHN RODGERS. 



from business, chiefly oa account of feeble liealth, and passed much of his time 
ia those intellectual pursuits to which his tastewled him. 

Mr. Brown was a Baptist until 1773 (about tlie time when he left business), 
when he became a member of the Society of Friends, and remained a shining- 
light in that connection until his death. He had accumulated wealth hy his 
business, and inherited a large property through his wife. These possessions ho 
used as means for carrying on an active and practical philanthropy during a long 
life. He manumitted all his slaves, in 1773, and was ever a consistent and 
zealous opponent of all systems of human servitude. He was a munificent patron 
of a Friends' Boarding-school at Providence; founded the Rhode Island Abolition 
Society, and was an active member and supporter of the Rhode Island Peace So- 
ciety. When Slater, the father of the cotton manufactures in this country, went 
to Providence, Moses Brown was the first to give him encouragement and substan- 
tial friendship ; and it was in his carriage that the enterprising Englishman was 
conveyed to Pawtucket, to commence the preparation of a cotton-mill." Though 
always ia feeble health, Mr. Brown never suffered severe illness. His corrc« 
spondence was very extensive, yet he seldom employed any one to write for him. 
Even his WiU, prepared Avhcn he was ninety-six years of age, was drawn by his 
own hand. That eminent servant of goodness died at Providence, on the 6th 
of September, 1836, in the ninety-eighth year of his age. 



JOHN RODOERS. 

MORE than a year before the American Congress declared war against Great 
Britain, a naval engagement took place near our coast between vessels of 
the two nations, being partly, it was alleged, tiie result of accident. The issue 
of the engagement was a foreshadow of ^vhat occurred during the succeeding 
few years. The American vessel alluded to was in command of Captain John 
Rodgcrs, a gallant American ofiQcer, who was born in the present Harford 
County, Maryland, on the 11th of July, 1771. His passion for the sea was very 
early manifested, and at the age of thirteen years it was gratified by a voj^agc. 
He loved the occupation, j^repared himself for it as a profession, and at the age 
of nineteen years he was intrusted with the command of a ship, which made trading 
voyages between Baltimore and the north of Europe. Captain Rodgers con- 
tinued in the merchant service until the organization of the American navy, in 
1797, when ho entered it as a first lieutenant ou board the frigate Constellation, 
under Commodore Truxton. He commanded the prize crew that took charge 
of tho captured French ship, L' Insurgents, in February, 1798, and in that ca- 
pacity he behaved with great coolness and ability in times of imminent danger. 
On his return home, lie obtained a furlough, purchased a brig, traded at St. Do- 
mingo, and during tho terrible massacre of tho white people there, in 1804, v>^as 
instrumental in saving many lives. 

In the Spring of 1799, Lieutenant Rodgcrs was promoted to Post-Captain in 
tho navy, and ordered to tho command of the Sloop-of-War Maryland. Ho 
cruised on the " Surinam Station" until tho Autumn of 1800, when lie returned 
home, and the following Spring was sent with dispatches to France. He served 
gallantly in the war with the Barbary Powers ; and in conjunction with Colonel 
Lear, the American consul-general, he signed a treaty with the Bey of Tripoli, 
in June, 1805, which put an end to the contest with that State. Captain Rodgers 

1. See sketch of Slater. 



WILLIAM ELLERY CHAINING. 373 

had command of the flotilla of gun-boats, in the harbor of New York, in 180*7, 
where he remained until 1809, when he put to sea in tlie frigate Constitution. 
In 1811 he was in command of the President, cruising oft' the coasts of Mary- 
land and Virginia. English ships of war were then hovering upon our shores, 
engaged in the nefarious business of kidnapping seamen from American vessels. 
With that vessel he compelled the commander of the British Sloop, Little Belt, to 
be frank and courteous, when he had met her under suspicious circumstances in 
the waters of Chesapeake Bay. These were the vessels alluded to at the com- 
mencement of this memoir. The event created a great sensation, and the two 
governments fully sustained the conduct of their respective commanders. War 
was finally declared, and within an hour after receiving his orders from the 
Secretary of the Navy, Commodore Rodgers sailed from the port of New York, 
with a small squadron, to cruise on the broad Atlantic. He made successful 
cruises in the President until 1814, when he was engaged on the Potomac in 
operations against the British, Avho burned Washington City in August of tliat 
year. He. soon afterward participated with gallantry in the defence of Balti- 
more. 

Commodore Rodgers twice refused the proffered office of the Secretaryship of 
the Navy, first by President Madison, and then by President Monroe. During 
almost twenty-one years he was President of the Board of Naval Commissioners, 
except for about two years, from 1825 to 1827, when he commanded the Ameri- 
can squadron in the Mediterranean, having the North Carolina for his flag-ship. 
There he won the highest respect from the naval officers of all nations, whom 
he met. In the Summer of 1832 he was prostrated by cholera, but recovered. 
His constitution, however, was permanently shaUered. A voyage to England 
for the improvement of his health, was of no av*iil, and he lingered until 1838, 
when, on the first day of August, he expired at Philadelphia, in the sixty- 
seventli year of his age. 



WILLIAM ELLEKY CHANNINQ. 

I)HODE ISLAND has produced some of the noblest specimens of the true 
i American, in almost every department of life. Of these, there was never a 
mind and heart more truly noble in emotion and expression, than that of William 
Ellery Channing. He was born at Newport, Rhode Island, on the Ith of April, 
1780. He was a lovely child in person and disposition — "an open, brave, and 
generous boy." William Ellery, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- 
Epondence, was his maternal grandfather, and he inherited that statesman's 
strength of character and honest patriotism. At twelve years of age he was 
placed in the family of an uncle, at New London, where he prepared for college, 
and entered Harvard, as a student, in 1794. He bore the highest honors of the 
institution at his graduation, in 1798. and then went to Virginia, as tutor in the 
family of David M. Randolph, Esq., of Richmond. Ill health compelled him to 
return home, and he prepared for the gospel ministry. He was made regent in 
Harvard University, in 1801, was licensed to preach, in 1802, and w^as ordained 
pastor of the Federal Street Unitarian Society, in Boston, in 1803. Then com- 
menced his noble labors in the cause of Christianity, whose doctrines he so elo- 
quently enforced by precept and exatnple. He continued to discharge the duties 
of pastor, without aid, until 1824, when the great increase of his congregation, 
and the multiplication of his labors, caused his people, who loved him as a father, 
to employ a colleague for him. H© visited Europe, held communion with some 



874 



WILLIAM ELLEKY CHANNING. 




of the best minds there, and he returned home with larger views, and more 
ennobhng thoughts and purposes. For almost forty years, Dr. Channing (the 
title of D.D. was conferred by the Faculty of Harvard University) was connected 
with the same society ; and during all that time he was afflicted with ill health, 
sometimes in only a slight degree. His fervid eloquence made his permanent 
congregation a large one, and crowds of strangers attended his ministrations. 
He wrote much and nobly, for the honor of God and the good of humanity. He 
was an uncompromising advocate for freedom in all its relations and conditions, 
and yet he urged his plea for humanity with so much gentleness and affectionate 
persuasion, that no one could be offended, however unpalatable his truths or his 
doctrines might be. In the Christian world he moved as a peace-maker, labor- 
ing incessantly to break down the hedges of creeds, and to 'unite all who loved 
righteousness, under the broad and beautiful banner of a pure practical Chris- 
tianity. He was a man of the purest nature and most guileless life ; and he 
moved like the gentle spirit of love among his fellow-men, scattering roses and 
sunshine upon every lonely patliway of life's weary pilgrims, and always telhng 
the care-worn and afflicted travellers of the sweet resting-places by the side of 
the still waters of a better sphere. His spirit yet breathes out his noble human- 
ities in his writings ; and he is to-day a powerful preacher of love and justice. 



ANDREW JACKSON DOWNING. 375 



though his voice was hushed into eternal silence, long years ago. His spirit 
was called home on the 2d of October, 1842, when he was tarrying at Benning- 
ton, in Vermont, while on a journey for the benefit of his health. 



ANDREW JACKSON DOWNING. 

NO American ever contributed so much toward the creation and cultivation 
of a taste for beautiful rural architecture, landscape gardening, and the ar- 
rangement of fruit and ornamental trees, as A. J. Downing, who was drowned 
on the occasion of tlie destruction of the steamer Henry Gcay, near Yonkers, in 
July, 1852. An extensive traveller in the Atlantic States said, soon after the sad 
cv^ent, " Much of the improvement that has taken place in this country during 
the last twelve years, in Rural Architecture, and in Ornamental Gardening and 
Planting, may be ascribed to him ;" and another, speaking of suburban cottages 
in tlie West, said, " I asked the origin of so much taste, and was told it might 
principally be traced to Downing's Cottage Residences, and his Horticulturist^ 

Mr. Downing was born in Newburgh, Orange County, New York, in 1815. 
Frora early boyhood he delighted to commune with nature, and loved flowers 
with a passionate delight. The beautiful was worshipped by him long before 
his acute logical and analytical mind could give a reason for his devotion ; and 
Ilia dislike of everything tliat wanted symmetry and fitness, was an early mani- 
festation of his pure taste. When ho grew to manhood, these tastes and facul- 
ties ivere nobly developed and actively employed ; and at the age of twenty-six 
years he published the results of his practice, observations and reflections, in a 
valuable book on Landscape Gardening. It was a work eminently original, for 
he had few precedents, either in personal example or in books, as guides in' his 
pf;culiar method of treating the subject. He seized upon the great principles of 
the science as developed in the works of Repton, Loudon, and others ; and then, 
bringing the groat powers of his mind to bear upon the topic, produced a book 
which caused an eminent British writer on the subject to say of him, " no Eng- 
lish landscape gardener has written so clearly, or with so much real intensity." 

Mr. Downing next turned his attention to the kindred art of Architecture, and 
soon produced a volums on Cottage Residences. Then appeared his Architecture 
of Country Houses, in which he gave designs for Cottages, Farm Houses and 
"\nilas, exterior and interior, with valuable suggestions respecting furniture, ven- 
tilation, &c. In 1845 his large work on Fruit and Fruit Trees of America, was 
published in New York and London, which has passed through many editions. 
His mind and hands were ever actively employed in his flworite pursuit; and 
through the Horticulturist, a monthly repository of practical knowledge on the 
subject of cultivation of every kind, which he edited, Mr. Downing communi- 
cated the results of his observations and personal experiences. Every movement 
having for its object the promotion of the science of cultivation, received his 
ardent support, and by lectures, essays, reports of societies and other vehicles 
of information, he was continually pouring a flood of influence that is seen and 
felt on every side. In addition to his large works, he had published Rules of 
American Pmnonology, and edited the productions of others. 

Mr. Downing was eminently practical in all his efforts. His beautiful resi- 
dence and grounds around it, at Newburgh, formed the central point of his la- 
bors. He was continually called upon for ;;li:i;.T for buildings, and pleasure 
grounds, public and private ; and at the time of his death he was on his way to 
Washington City, in the prosecution of his professional engagements there, in 



876 JONATHAN HAREINGTON. 

laying out and adorning the public grounds around the Smithsonian Institute. 
A part of bis plan for beautifying that public square was to make a great central 
avenue, and to border it witli trees and shrubs which should exhibit every va- 
riety produced in America, that would liourish in the climate of Washington 
city. But, alas ! this labor, as well as all of his other numerous professional en- 
f;agements, was suddenly arrested by a fearful calamity in which ho was involved. 
On a beautiful afternoon, the 31st of July, 1852, he was a passenger, for New 
York, in the steamer Henry Clay. When opposite Forrest Point, a little below 
Yonkers, it was discovered that the vessel was on fire. Her bow was turned 
toward the shore, when the smoke and flames rushed over that part of the boat 
wliere most of the passengers were collected. Just as she struck the beach 
these were compelled by the heat to leap into the water, and fifty-six persons 
perished by being either drowned or burned. In attempting to save the life of 
his mother-in-law, Mr. Downing lost his own, although lie Avas an expert swim- 
mer. That last act of his life reflected a prominent trait in his daily intercourse 
with society — unselfish goodness. He was not yet thirty-eight years of age, when 
he was stopped ia the midst of a useful career. 



JONATHAN HARKINOTON. 

ON a lovely afternoon in the Autumn of 1848, the writer reined up his horse at 
a little picket-gate in front of a neat residence in East Lexington, Massa- 
chusetts. A slender old man, apparently not more than seventy years of age, 
was splitting lire-wood in the yard near b}^, and plied the axe with a vigorous 
hand. The residence belonged to Jonathan Harrington, who, when a lad not 
eighteen years of age, played the fife for the minute-men upon the green at 
Lexington, on the morning of the memorable 19th of April, 1775. The vigorous 
axe-man in the yard was the patriot himself. I had journeyed from Boston, a 
dozen miles or more, to visit him ; and when ho sat down in his rocking-chair, 
and related the events of that historic morning, the very spirit of Liberty seemed 
to bum in every word from those lips that touched that little instrument of music 
at the gray dawn. He kindly allowed me to sketch his features for my port- 
folio; and then, writing his name beneath the picture — ''Jonathan Harrington, 
aged 90, the 8th of July, 1848 " — he apologized for the rough appearance of his 
signature, and charged the unsteadiness of his hand to his labor with the axe. 
His younger brother, who sat near him, appeared more feeble than he. 

Mr. Han-ington was bom on the 8th of July, 1757, in the town of Lexington; 
and though a mere youth when the train-bands were formed, in 1774, he en- 
rolled himself as one of the mihtia of his district, Avho. because they were bound 
to appear in anns at a moment's warning, were called viiriut:-nien. When the 
f3w patriots gathered upon the green at Lexington to oppose the invading march 
of British troops from Boston, young Harrington was there with his fife, and 
with its martial music he opened the ball of the Revolution, where 

" Yankees skilled in martial rule, 

First put the British troops to school ; 

Instrnete<3 thena in warlike trade, 

And new mancBuvres of parade ; 

The true war-dance of Yankee reels, 

And manual exerdxe of heels ; 

Made thera give up, like saints complete, 

The arm of flesh and trust the feet, 

And work, like Christians undissembling, 

Salvation out with fear and trembling." — Trumbttuu 



HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. 377 

After performing tliat prelude, he retired. He was not a soldier during the 
war ; nor was his life afterward remarkable for any thing except as the career 
of a good citizen. He lived on in the quiet enjoyment of rural pursuits, not 
specially noticed by his fellow-men, until the survivors of the Revolution began 
to be few and cherished. Then the hearts of the generation around him began 
to be moved with reverence for him. On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the 
skirmishes at Lexington and Concord, the event was celebrated at the latter 
place. In the procession was a carriage, bearing the venerable Harrington and 
his brother; Amos Baker, of Lincoln ; Thonaas Hill, of Danvers ; and Dr. Preston, 
of Billerica — the assembled survivors of those firet bloody struggles for American 
Independence. Edward p]verett made an eloquent speech on the occasion ; and, 
when alluding to the venerated fifer, he repeated the words of David to the good 
son of Saul, " Very pleasant art thou to me, my brother Jonathan." Mr. Har- 
rington lived almost four years longer, and by the death of his compatriots just 
mentioned, he became the last survivor of the minute-men of Lexington.' He 
died on the 28th of March, 1854, in the ninety-sixth year of his age. His funeral 
was attended by the governor and legislature of Massachusetts, and at least six 
thousand other citizens. 



HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. 

IN the bosom of the Ohio river, about fourteen miles below the mouth of the 
Muskingum, is a beautiful island, around which cluster memories and asso- 
ciations, and the elements of many legends ; and these increase in interest with 
the flight of years. Those memories, and associations, and legends, are con- 
nected with the name and destiny of a family whose history illustrates the won- 
derful vicissitudes of human life, and the uncertainty of earthly possessions. 
It was that of Blennerhassett, whose name, radiant with light, will ever be as- 
sociated with that of Aaron Burr, clouded in darkness. 

Harman Blennerhassett was descended from an ancient Irish family of the 
county of Kerry, whose residence was Castle Conway. While his mother was 
visiting in Hampshire, England, 1767, he was born. His father, belonging to 
one of the oldest aristocratic families of Ireland, gave his son every educational 
advantage that wealth could afford, first at Westminster School, and then in 
Trinity College, Dublin. He and his friend and relation, the late Thomas Addis 
Emraett, of New York, were graduated at the same time ; and after young 
Blennerhassett had made a tour of the Continent, he and Slmmett were admit- 
ted to the practice of the law, on the same day. Mr. Blennerhassett had a 
great fondness for science and literature, and being an expectant of a laj^ge for- 
tune, he paid more attention to those attractive pursuits than to business in his 
pi-ofession. That fortune was possessed by him, on the death of his father, in 
1796. At that time he had become a popular politician, of the liberal stamp, 
and having involved himself in some difficulties, he sold his estate, went to 
England, and there married Miss Agnew, a young lady possessed of great beauty 
and varied accomplishments.- Each appeared worthy of the other, and the at- 

1. Earlv in 1855, one of llie British soldiers who followed Pitcairn to Lexingrlon. eighty years before, 
died in England, at the age of 107 years. He was a Wesleyan minister, named Geoige Fletcher. For 
eighty-throe years he was in active life ; twen(y-six of which he was a soldier in the royal army. He is 
supposed to have been the last survivor of that detachment sent out by General Gage, on the night of 
the 18th of April, 1775, to capture or destroy the American stores at Concord. 

2. She was a gran Idaughter of Hrigadiei -General James Aguew, of the British army, who was killed 
in the battle at Germantown, in the Autumn of 1777- 



878 HARMAN BLENNERHASSETT. 

iDOsphere of their future was all rose-tinted. Charmed by the free institutions 
of tlie United States, Mr. Blennerhassett resolved to make his home in the 
bosom of the Republic of the West. With a fin§ library and philosophical appara- 
tus, and a competent fortune, he came hither toward the close of the Summer 
of 1797. After spending a few weeks in New York, the reports of the beauty, 
fertility, and salubrious climate of the Ohio country beckoned him thither, and 
eai'ly in Autumn he reached Marietta. In March, following, he purchased a fine 
plantation upon an island in the Ohio (above alluded to), and at once commenced 
transforming that luxuriant wilderness into a paradise for himself and family. 
A spacious and elegant mansion was erected ; the grounds were tastefully laid 
out and planted, and that island soon became the resort of some of the best 
minds west of the mountains. Science, music, painting, farm culture and social 
pleasures, made up a great portion of the sum of daily life in that elegant re- 
treat. For almost five years that gifted family enjoyed unalloyed happiness, and 
they regarded their dwelling as their home for life. One day in the Spring of 
1805, a small man, about fifty years of age, elegantly attired, landed from a boat 
and sauntered about the grounds. With his usual frankness, Mr. Blennerhas- 
sett invited him to partake of his hospitality, though a stranger to him in name 
and person. It was Aaron Burr, the wily serpent, that beguiled the unsuspect- 
ing Blennerhassett from his books, his family and home, to feed on the danger- 
ous fruit of political ambition and avaricious desires. Burr was then weaving 
his scheme of conquest in the for south-west, and fired the imagination of 
Blennerhassett with dreams of wealth and power. When he had departed, 
Blennerhassett was a changed man, and clouds began to gather around the 
bright star of his destiny. He placed his wealth and reputation in the keeping 
of an unprincipled demagogue, and lost both. For a year and a half the scheme 
was ripening, when the Federal government, suspecting Burr of treason, put 
forth its arm and crushed the viper in the egg.^ Burr and Blennerhassett were 
arrested on a charge of treason. The former was tried and acquitted, when pro- 
ceedings against the latter were suspended. From that time poor Blennerhas- 
sett was a doomed man. His paradise was laid waste, and with a sad heart he 
went to Mississippi and became a cotton planter. There he struggled against 
losses, which were more depressing because, from time to time, he was called 
upon with Burr's notes endorsed by himself^ and was compelled to pay them. 
At the end of ten years his fortune was almost exhausted, and with the promise 
of a judgeship in Lower Canada, he went to Montreal in 1819. Disappoint- 
ment awaited him, and he returned to England in expectation of public employ- 
ment there. That hope, too, was blighted ; and after residing awhile at Bath 
with a maiden sister, he went, with his fimily, to the island of Guernsey. 
There that highly-gifted and unfortunate man died in 1831, at the age of sixty- 
three years. In 1842 his widow came to America, with her two invali-1 sons, 
for the purpose of seeking remuneration from Congress for losses of property 
sustained at the time of her husband's arrest. She petitioned Congress, and her 
suit was eloquently sustained by Henry Clay and others. While the matter was 
pending, Mrs. Blennerhassett sickened. She was in absolute want, and her 
necessities were relieved by some benevolent Irish females of New York, where 
she resided. Death soon removed her, and that beautiful and accomphshed 
woman, the child of social honor and of opulence, was buried bv the kind handa 
of the Sisters of Charity, in August, 1842. 

1 See sketch of Aaron Burr. 



JOHN JACOB ASTOK. 



379 




JOHN JACOB A ST OR. 

"VTOT far frorL tovely Heidelberg, on the Rhine, in the grand-duchy of Baden, 
l^ is the picturesque Httle village of Walldorf, nestled among quiet hills, away 
from the din of commerce and the vexations of promiscuous intercourse with the 
great world of business and politics. Near that little village, in the mid-summer 
of 1763, an infant was born of humble parents, who, in after years, became a 
"merchant prince," and died a Croesus among an opulent people. His name 
was John Jacob Astor. He was nurtured in the simplicity of rural life, yet he 
manifested ambition for travel and traffic, at an early age. While a mere strip- 
ling, he left home for London. He started for a sea-port, on foot, with all his 
worldly wealth in a bundle hanging over his shoulder; and beneath a linden 
tree, in whose shadow he sought repose, he resolved to he honest, to he industrious, 
and to avoid gamhling. Upon this solid moral basis he built the superstructure 
of his fame, and secured his great wealth. 

Mr. Astor left London for America, in the same month when the British troops 
left New York, at the close of the War for Independence, bringing with him 
some merchandize for traffic. His elder brother had been in this country several 
years, and had often written to him concerning its advantages for a young man 
©f enterprise. Mr. Astor soon became acquainted with a farrier (one of liig 



880 JOHN JACOB ASTOU. 

countrymen), and, having obtained from him all necessary information concern- 
ing the business, lie resolved to employ the proceeds of his merchandize in the 
fur traffic. He commenced the business in New York, and was successful from 
the beginning. His enterprise, guided by great sagacity, always kept in advance 
of his capital ; and year after year his business limits expanded. He made reg- 
ular visits to Montreal, where he purchased furs of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
and shipped them for London. When commercial treaties permitted, after 1794, 
, he sent his furs to all parts of the United States, and for many years carried on 
' a very lucrative trade with Canton, in China. Success was always at his right 
hand. After spending many 3'ears as a second-hand operator in furs, and liaving 
accumulated a large fortune, ho resolved to do business on his own account en- 
tirely, bj^ trading with the Indians dirccth^, who were supplying a new corpora- 
tion, known as the North-western Company, with the choicest furs, from the 
Mississippi and its tributaries. The general government approved of his plan 
for securing that vast trade of the interior; and, in 1809, the State of New York 
incorporated The American Fur Company, with a capital of one million of dollars 
and the privilege of extending it to two millions. The president and directors 
were merely nominal officers, for the capital, management, and profits, all be- 
longed to Mr. Astor. 

In 1811, Mr. Astor bought out the North-western Company, and, with some 
associates, formed a system of operations by which the immense trade in furs of 
the middle regions of North America might be controlled by him. Under the 
name of the South-western Fur Company, their operations were commenced, but 
the war between the United States and England, kindled in 1812, suspended 
their movements, for a while. In the meanwhile, the mind of Mr. Astor had 
grasped a more extensive enterprise. The Pacific coast was a rich field for car- 
rying on the fur trade with China. Already the country of the Columbia river 
had been made known by the visits of Boston merchant-ships, and the expedi- 
tion of Lewis and Clarke, across the Continent, in 1804. Mr. Astor conceived 
the idea of making himself " sole master" of that immense trade. In 1810, the 
Pacific Fur Company was chartered, with Mr. Astor at its head. His plan was 
to have a line of trading posts across the Continent to the mouth of the Columbia 
river, and a fortified post there to be supplied with necessaries by a ship passing 
around Cape Horn once a year. The post at the mouth of the Columbia was 
established, and named Astoria. It was the germ of the budding State of Ore- 
gon. Then commenced a series of operations on a scale altogether beyond any 
thing hitherto attempted by individual enterprise. The history is full of wildest 
romance ; and the chaste pen of Irving has woven the wonderful incidents into 
a charming narrative that fills two volumes. "We cannot even glance at it, in 
this brief memoir. The whole scheme was the offspring of a capacious mind ; 
and had the plans of Mr. Astor been faithfully carried out by his associates, it 
would, no doubt, have been eminently successful. But the enterprise soon failed. 
During the war, a British armed sloop captured Astoria, and the British fur 
traders entered upon the rich field which Mr. Astor had planted, and reaped the 
golden harvest. When the war had ended, and Astoria was left within the 
domain of the United States, by treaty, Mr. Astor solicited the government to 
aid him in recovering his lost possessions. Aid was withheld, and the grand 
■scheme of opening a high-way across the continent, with a continuous chain of 
military and trading posts, which Mr. Astor had laid before President Jefferson, 
became a mere figment of history, over which sound statesmen soon lamented. 
His dream of an empire beyond the mountains, " peopled by free and independent 
Americans, and linked to us by ties of blood and interest," vanished like the 
morning dew ! It has since become a reality. 

After the failure of this great enterprise, Mr. Astor gradually withdrew from- 



THOMAS H. GALLAUDET. 381 

commercial life. Ho was the owner of much real estate, especially in the city 
of New York and vicinity, and held a large amount of public stocks. The re- 
mainder of his days was chiefly spent .in the management of his accumulated 
and rapidly-appreciating property. He died in the city of New York, in tlio 
month of March, 1848, at the age of almost eighty-five years. The great bulk 
of his immense property, amounting to several millions of dollars, was left to his 
family. Before his death, he provided ample funds for the establishment and 
.support of a splendid public library in the city of New York; and he also gavo 
a large sum of money to his native town, for the purpose of founding an institu- 
tion for the education of the young, and as a retreat for indigent aged persons. 
The Asior Lihrarij in New York, anc' the jUtor House in Walldorf, were both 
opened in 1854. They are noble monur ■)nts to the memory of the "merchant 
prince." 



THOMAS H. OALLAUDET, 

" THE cause of humanity is primarily indebted to him for the introduction of 
JL deaf mute instruction into the United States, and for the spread of the in- 
formation necessary for prosecuting it successfully in public institutions, of which 
all in the country are experiencing the benefits." What greater eulogium need 
any man covet than this expression of the Board of Directors of the American 
Asylum for the Deoi" and Dumb, at Hartford, when they accepted the resigna- 
tion of the Rev. Thomas H. G-allaudet, as president of that institution ? "tIio 
winning of such laurels in the field of active philanthropy, is a result more noblo 
than any achieved upon Marathon or Waterloo. 

Thomas H. Grallaudet was a native of Philadelphia, where he was born on 
the 10th of December, 1787. He acquired a good Academic education in his 
native city, and soon after his parents removed to Hartford, in Connecticut, in 
1800, ho entered Yale College. There he was graduated in 1805, and com- 
menced the study of law. The profession had but few charms for him, and on 
being chosen a tutor in Yale College, in 1808, ho abandoned it. He continued 
his connection with Yale until 1810, and then engaged in commercial business. 
That employment was also uncongenial to his taste, and ho abandoned it after a 
trial of a few months. In the meanwhile his mind had received deep religiou3 
convictions, and he felt called to the Gospel ministry. He entered the Andovcr 
Theological Seminary in 1811, completed his studies there in 1814, and was then 
licensed to preach. Again ho was diverted from a chosen pursuit, and he was 
led by Providence into a field for useful labor, far above what he had aspired to. 
His attention had been drawn to the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, while 
at Andover, and when ho left that institution Dr. Mason Coggswell, of Hartford, 
invited him to instruct his little daughter, who was a deaf mute. Mr. Gallau- 
det's experiments were eminently successful, and Dr. Coggswell felt an irre- 
pressible desire to extend the blessings of his instruction to otliers similarly 
afflicted. An association of gentlemen was formed for the purpose ; and in tho 
Spring of 1815, they sent Mr. Gallaudet to Europe to visit institutions for tho 
Deaf and Dumb, already established there. Tho selfishness and jealousy of tho 
managers of those in England prevented his learning much that was new or 
useful there ; but at the Roj^al Institution in Paris, under tho care of the Abb '• 
Sicard, every facility was given to him. He returned in 1816, accompanied b}' 
Lawrence Le Clerc to be his assistant. Measures had been taken, in the mean- 



882 ELIJAH HEDDING. 



Avhile, to found a public institution; and on the 15th of April, 1817, the first 
Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, established i^ America, was opened at Hart- 
ford, under the charge of Mr. G-allaudet.' It prospered greatly, and became the 
centre of abundant blessings. There he labored with intense and increasi-ng 
zeal until 1830, when impaired health compelled him to resign his charge as 
principal, though he remained a director, and always felt a lively interest in its 
welfare. After a brief cessation from labor, he commenced the preparation of 
several works designed for educational purposes ; and wherever a field of Chris- 
tian philanthropy called for a laborer, there he was found, a willing worker. 

In the Summer of 1838, Mr. G-allaudet became chaplain of the Connecticut 
Retreat for the Insane, at Hartford, and in that important duty he labored with 
abundant useful results, until the last. He died at Hartford on the 9th of Sep- 
tember, 1851, at the age of about sixty-four yeai 5. His name is a synonym 
of goodness and benevolence. A handsome monument to his memory was 
erected near the Asylum building, at Hartford, in 1854, wholly by contributions 
of deaf mutes in the United States. The designer and architect were both 



deaf mutes. 



EI.IJAH HEDDINQ. 

ONE of the most useful and beloved of the ministers of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, in America, was Elijah Hedding, D.D., who, for almost thirty years, 
was one of its chief pastors, and at the time of his death the senior bishop of 
that church. He was born in the town of Pino Plains, Duchess county. New 
York, on the 7th of June, 1780. His good mother taught him to know and love 
God, and at the age of four years ho could pray understandingly. During his 
boyhood, the celebrated Benjamin Abbott was on the Duchess Circuit, and 
under his powerful preaching the zeal of Elijah's mother was fired, and she be- 
came an earnest Methodist. "-^ She loved the communion of that people, and her 
heart was greatly rejoiced when her son took delight in her Christian way of 
hfe. 

In 1791, the family removed to Yermont, and at the age of eighteen years, 
young Hedding made an open profession of Christianity, and joined the Metliodist- 

1. It soon became the asylum for all New Enfjland ; and the several legislatures, except that of Rhode 
Island, made appropriaiions for its support. The second institution of the kind was established in ilnj 
city of New Yorl^, in 1818. The American system, as that of Mr. Gallaudet (an improvement on Uio 
French) was called, was not adopted the;e until Dr. Harvey P. Peet, a teacher at Hartford, became a tutor 
in that institution. Dr. Pedt has been at the head of the New York Asylum many years, and has manajred 
its affairs with eminent success. There are now about a dozen institutions for the instruction of (he 
Deaf and Da-nb, in the Uuitel States, and all employ the system introduced by Mr. Gallaudet. Tli^ro 
are now (1855] full ten thousand Deaf and Dumb persons in the United States. There is one in the Asy- 
lum at Hartford (Julia Brace) wlio is also WmiZ. She lost these several senses by sickness, when she 
was four years of age. She continued to talk some for about a year, and the word she was longest pe"- 
mitted to speak, was the tender one of mother. In the Blind and Deaf Asylum in Boston, i^ now a, 
woman (La ira Bridgmi!-,) whose history possesses the most thrilling interest. She was born puny and 
sickly, in Hanover, New Himpshirs, in 1829, and by severe disease she lost both sight and hearing be- 
fore she was twa years of ago. When her health was restored, she had almost entirely lost the senses of 
tafte and nmell ! As she grew to girlhood she evinced a strong mind, but oh I in what silence and dark- 
ness was she enveloped ! In 1837, Dr. Ho jok her to his Asylum in Boston, and successfully at- 
tempted the developement of her intelleci, „t the age of eight years. We hav .' no^ space to speak .of her 
acqu.'i .iients. They are wonderf"' Jideed ; pnd she seems to live in an atmosphere of exqui?:te 
en^c njent. H ~>ioral faculties have full v-] ay d she is a loving and lovely creatur * 53 years 
^fa-a. 

2. The niothex ^jf the writer once mentioned a circumstance that occun-ed in the min^^^cry of Mr. 
ibbott, which wuj witnessed by herself. On a suiti'y afternoon, a heavy thunder-show li- occur: cd 
/rhile Sir. Abbott was preaching at the little hamlet of Beeknianville. When his discourse v.is 

biut half finished, lightning struck the building with a terrible crash. The preacher stopped, 
jd. with a calm veice, said, " When G jd speaks, let man hold his peace," and then sat down. 



ELIJAH HEDDING. 8S3 



Church. In the Summer of 1799, he became a local preacher, as those who arc 
licensed to exhort are called, and labored partly in Vermont and partly in Can- 
ada, on a circuit just vacated by the eccentric Lorenzo Dow. In the Spring of 
1800, he was licensed to preach; and in June, the following year, he was ad- 
mitted to the New York annual conference as a travelling preacher, on proba- 
tion. His itinerant labors were very .great. The circuits often embraced almost 
a wilderness, requiring journeys from two hundred to five hundred miles, to be 
made in the space of from two to six weeks, while every day a sermon was to 
be preached and a class met. Mountains were climbed ; swamps and rivers 
wore forded; tangled forests were thridded; and in sunshine or in storm, the 
travelling preacher went on in his round of duty. Privations were cheerfully 
suffered; and as those messengers of glad tidings went on their way, the forests 
were made vocal with their hymns. In severe and earnest labors for the real 
good of souls, the Methodist Church is preeminent. 

For a time Mr. Hedding was stationed on the Plattsburg circuit, which ex- 
tended along the western shore of Lake Champlain, far into Canada. Then he 
took a circuit on the east side of the lake, extending back to the Green Moun- 
tains. After two years of hard service, in this way, he was ordained a Deacon, 
in 1803, and was sent to a circuit in New Hampshire. There he labored in- 
tensely until his liealth gave way. He arose from the borders of the grave, after 
being ill eight months, with a constitution much shattered, but a soul burning 
with^more intense zeal for the Gospel, than before. His labors were highly 
esteemed; and, in 1805, he was ordained an Elder, by Bishop Asbury. two 
years afterward he became a presiding elder ; and he performed the duties of 
that office with great ability and dignity. Plain in speech and earnest in man- 
ner, his preaching always seemed accompanied with the demonstrations of the 
spirit, and revivals everywhere attended his ministrations. Yet in all his labors 
he won no earthly gain. During ten years, his average cash receipts were only 
forty-five dollars a year ! Yet he says the sisters were kind to him, for they 
put patches upon the knees of his pantaloons, and often turned an old coat for 
liim. 

From ISiO until 1824, Mr, Hedding's field of ministerial labor was in New 
England. At the general conference, in 1824, ho was elevated to the office of 
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was ordained, by tho imposition 
of hands, on the 28th of May, of that year. With great humiht}^, but with un- 
wavering faith in tho sustaining grace of God, he entered with zeal upon tho 
resnonsible duties of the prelacy; and during tho first eight years of his epis- 
copal life, he presided over fifty-two conferences, extending over the whole 
Union. That was a most interesting period in the history of Methodism in 
America, and no man contributed more to its growth and respectability, than 
Bishop Hedding. When he commenced his ministerial labors, in the year 1800, 
the Methodist Church in the United States and Canada numbered less than 
seventy-three thousand members; when he left the field, in 1852, that member- 
ship had swollen to over a million and a quarter. 

In 1832, Bishop Hedding was at the door of death; but he was spared to the 
church twenty years longer. After 1844, his bodily infirmities abridged his 
sphere of active labor, yet he continued to be the oracle of wisdom when advice 
was needed. His last episcopal services were performed in 1850. Then ho sat 
down in his pleasant residence at Poughkeepsie, and in the midst of much bodily 
suffering, he waited to be called home. The message came on the 9th of April, 
1852, and his spirit went joyfully to the presence of the great Head of the Church 
in earth and heaven. 



384 



STEPHEN OLIN. 




STEPHEN OLIN, 



WE have few records in human history more touching and instrucuiv^e than 
that of the ministei'ial labors of the llev. Dr. OHn, one of the brir,hLC::t 
luininarios of the Methodist Episcoi^al Chui'ch, who was continually struggling 
with great bodily infirmity while engaged in arduous toils. The possessor of a 
huge frame more than six feet in height, he had all the appearance of an iron 
man, outwardly, but froin earliest years tliat frame was weak and deceptive. 

Stephen Olin was born in Leicester, Vermont, on the 2d of March, 1797. Ilia 
father, a d-^scendant of one of the earlier settlers of Rhode Island, was success- 
ively a State legislator, Judge of the Supreme Court of Vermont, Member of Con= 
gress and Lieutenant Governor.' Stephen was carefully educated, chiefly at homo 
under the direction of his father, and at the age of fifteen years he commenced 
teaching a village school. Plis flxther designed him for the profession of the 
law, and he was placed under legal instruction in Middleburj^, Vermont. Ho 
yearned to enter the College there, for he soon perceived that his education was 
not sufficient for success in professional life. He finally told his father that he 
was willing to return to labor on the farm, but he was unwilUng to bo '" half a 
lawyer." The hint was sufficient, and Judge Olin placed his son in Middlebury 
Collage, at the age of nineteen years. He was an apt scholar, and was graduat- 
t^d with highest lienors. 



STEPHEN OLIN. 885 



Although he was of large frame, ho felt much physical weakness on leaving 
College. The South presenting a field for its recovery, he went thither in 1820, 
and became a teacher m a Seminary in Abbeville District, South Carolina, wiiicli 
was located in a rude log-cabin. He boarded in the family of an exemplary 
"local" Methodist preacher, and became a converted man. With the joy of re- 
ligious impressions came a desire to spread the glad tidings of Christiauit}-, and 
abandoning all idea of becoming a lawyer, he assumed the duties and privations 
of a Methodist preacher, in 1822. He was soon afterward invited to a professor- 
ship in the college at Middlebury, but declined it, because, notwithstnuding his 
foeble health would not allow him to enter upon the itineracy, ho could not give 
lip his devotion to Methodism and its ministry. In 1824, lie was stationed i:i 
Charleston, in the travelling connection, where he labored zealously- 111 health 
demanded relaxation, and ho visited his friends in ""--^Tmont, after a' \ absence of 
four years. In the Autumn of 1824, he travelled . 3k to Charleston on horse- 
back. 

In 1825, Mr. Olin became editor of the Wesleyan Journal, assisted by the late 
Bishop Capers, but his health would not allow him to conduct it as he desired, 
and ho became only an occasional contributor, [n 1826, he was chosen Pro- 
fessor of belles-lettres in Franklin College, at Athens, Georgia, and soon aftor 
entering upon his duties there he was married to a beautiful and exemplary 
young lady. At about the same time, ho was ordained an elder in the Motho J- 
ist Episcopal Church. Ho soon afterward made another visit to Ir.s native 
State, and then resided in Virginia for some time, all the while suflForing fi'orji 
disease. In 1834, ho attended the conference at Charleston, where he was 
greeted with much love ; and the same year three Colleges conferred upon liiiu 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinit}^ 

Dr. Olin was active for the benefit of Randolph Macon College in Georgia, 
and was chosen its president ; but ill health compelled him to relinquLsh that 
field of useful endeavor. In the Summer of 1837, he went to Europe with his 
wife, and after spending some time on the continent and in the British Isles, ho 
went to Greece, Egypt, and the Holy Land. During his journeyings, he suf- 
fered several attacks of severe illness, and finally he returned home in the 
Autumn of 1840. Hj had been elected President of the Wesleyan University 
at Middletown, Connecticut, to fill the place of the deceased Dr. Fiskc, but his 
feeble health would not permit him to accept the appointment. In 1842, his 
strength seemed to warrant him in accepting an urgent call to that institution, and 
he became its President. He suffered much; and in the Winter of 1842-3, ho 
withdrew from active duty there, and passed the time in the house of his friend, 
Fletcher Harper, of New York, where he revised the proof-sheets of his Travels 
in the East. That interesting work was published in two volumes the ensuing 
season. \ 

In the troubles between the Methodists North and South, occasioned by the 
slavery question. Dr. Olin was eminently a peace-maker, and commanded the 
highest respect of both parties. Gladly would his brethren have honored him 
with the office of Bishop, but his feeble health denied to him the privilege of 
such hard labor. He worked on and suffered on ; and in the Autumn of 1845, 
he made another trip to Europe, but of short duration. On his return he be- 
came a zealous member of the Evangelical Alliance, but his feebleness now be- 
came more and more general. Yet he travelled, and preached, and wrote much, 
until tlio Summer of 1851, when at Middletown, he wiis compelled to put off tho 
armor of a brave soldier in the Church militant, and prepare for communion 
with the Church triumphant. His spirit departed for that blessed community on 
the morning of the IGth of August, 1851, when ho was in the fiuy-fifth year of 
his age. 

25 



386 HENRY INMAN. 



HENRY INMAN. 

ART, literature, and social life, were all widowed by the death of Henry In- 
man, one of the most gifted men of our century. Wordsworth pronounced' 
him the most decided man of genius, he had ever seen from America ; and our 
own Bryant has said of 'jim that " he was no less beloved as a friend, than ad- 
mired as a painter ; that his social qualities were of the richest order, and al- 
though he seldom indulged in rhyme, his conversation and letters were often 
instinct with the spirit of poetry." That child of genius was born in Utica, 
New York, then a beautiful little village in the upper valley of the Mohawk, on 
the 20tli of October, 1801. His talent for drawing was evinced at a very early 
age, and his father, who had a taste for the beautiful in nature or in art, warnjjy 
encouraged it. An itinerant teacher of drawing gave the lad some lessons in 
the science, but he did not enter oven tho vestibule of the great temple in which 
he was afterward such a distinguished worshipper, until tho removal of his 
family to the city of Now York, in 1812, While under the care of an element- 
ary teacher there, his superior talent attracted the attention of John Wesley 
Jarvis, then in the zenith of his fame as the best living portrait painter in 
America, except Stuart. Young Inman was then about thirteen years of age, 
and his father had just obtained a warrant for his entrance to the Military 
Academy at West Point. Jarvis invited him to become his pupil. The father 
left the choice to his son, and fortunately for art he chose lo be a painter. A 
bargain for a seven years' apprenticeship was soon concluded, and both parties 
faithfully fulfilled their engagements during that time. 

Mr. Inman erected his easel in Now York, in 1822, as a portrait and miniature 
painter, and in both departments of tho art lie was eminently successful, from 
the beginning. Miniatures pleased him best, and he devoted himself almost ex- 
clusively to that branch of art, until his pupil, Thomas S. Cummings, (now [1855] 
one of the best miniature painters in America), displayed such superior merit in 
that line, that Inman left the field to him. Life-sized portraits, and sketches on 
Bristol board, now occupied his attention, and he labored with great zeal and 
assiduity. In 1825, when the National Academy of Design was established in 
New York, Mr. Inman was elected its Vice-President, and held that office until 
he made Philadelphia his residence. After prosecuting his vocation there for 
awhile, with great success, he purchased a small rural estate in the neighbor- 
hood of Mount Holly, New Jersey, where he was continually engaged in his 
delightful art. There he produced many beautiful compositions in landscape and 
historical painting, copies of which have since been scattered broadcast over the 
land by engraving. In 1834 Mr. Inman returned to New York, His health 
was now becoming delicate, yet he labored incessantly, and with the highest re- 
muneration ever received by any painter in this country. The gorgeous bubble 
of speculation, glowing with rainbow hues, fascinated him, and in an evil hour 
he grasped at its beauties. Its promises all vanished in thin air, and in 1836 he 
found himself a hopeless bankrupt. He had received a commission from Con- 
gress to paint a picture for one of the vacant panels in the Rotunda of the 
Federal Capitol, but this terrible blow deferred his labor upon it, for he was 
obliged to work hard for bread for his growing family. He had already received 
some money in part payment for the work. Because he did not go forward with 
that public commission as a man in full health and prosperity might have done, 
slander began to cast its venom upon his spotless fame. His noble nature was 
deeply wounded, and his disease (an enlargement of the heart) was aggravated. 
Finally, in 1844, he went to England, hoping to regain health and to paint hia 



WILLIAM MILLER. 387 



promised picture there. But his hopes were soon clouded, and he returned homo 
*o die, bringing with him the finest of all the trophies of his genius — the por- 
traits of Wordsworth and Dr. Chalmers. He continued the practice of his art 
with great zeal until within a few weeks of his death. That event occurred on 
the 17th of January, 1846, at the age of about forty-four years. He was, at 
that time, President of the Academy of Design, and after his death, a large col- 
lection of his works was exhibited for the benefit of his family. In that collec' 
tion there were one hundred and twenty-seven paintings. 



WILLIAM MILLER. 

IN all ages of the world credulity has produced strange shapes in society. 
The most absurd notions, honestly entertained by deluded persons, or art- 
fully promulgated by wicked impostors, for personal benefit, have found ardent 
supporters, fired with martyr zeal, especially when the dogma was arrayed in 
the mysterious garb of a religious necessity. Time and again the broad mantle 
of Christianity has been used to cover up the deformities of these parasitical 
systems ; and, apparently under the awful sanctions of divine revelation, multi- 
tudes have " believed a lie." In our day, the peculiar doctrines concerning the 
second personal appearance of Jesus upon earth, known as Millerism., have had 
a more wide-spread and disastrous influence than any other, except that of the 
wicked and obscene system of Mormonism. The author of Millerism^ familiarly 
known, like the founder of Mormonism, as Tlie Proj>het, was William Miller, a 
plain, uneducated, religious zealot, who was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in 
1771. Of his early life wo have no important record. He seems not to have 
been distinguished from his fellow-men by anything remarkable, except that he 
was an honest man and good citizen. 

When war between the United States and Great Britain was kindled in 1812, 
Mr. Miller was captain of a company of volunteers on the northern frontier, and 
did good service at Sacketts Harbor, Williamsburg and Plattsburg. When peace 
came he resumed his farm labors, and we hear nothing more of him until about 
1826, when, almost simultaneously with Joe Smith's annunciation of his pre- 
tended visions, Mr. Miller began to promulgate his peculiar views concerning 
prophec}^ It was not until 183.3, that he commenced his pubhc ministry on the 
subject of the approaching Millennium. Then he went forth from place to place 
throughout the Northern and Middle States, boldly proclaiming the new inter- 
l^retation of Scripture, and declaring that Christ would descend in clouds, the 
true saints would be caught up into the air, and the earth would be purified by 
fire, in 1843. No doubt the aged zealot was sincere. He labored with great 
fervor ; and during the ten years of his ministry he averaged a sermon every 
two days. As the time for the predicted consummation of all pio^jhecy ap- 
proached, his disciples rapidly increased. Hundreds and thousands embraced 
his doctrine, withdrew from church-fellowship, and banded together as The 
Church of Latter Day Saints. Other preachers appeared in the field. The press 
was diligently employed ; and an alarming paper, called The Midnight Cry, was 
published in New York, embellished, sometimes, with pictures of hideous beasts, 
and the image seen by the Babylonian Emptor in his dream ; at others with 
representations of benignant angels. The office of that publication was the 
head-quarters of the deluded sect, and the receptacle of a large amount of money 
continually and bountifully contributed by the disciples, even up to the very 



888 JAMES KNOX POLK. 

evening before " the last day," in the Autum of 1843.' The excitement became 
intense. Many gave up business weeks before. Some gave away their property 
to the managers of the solemn dramn. Families were beggard, and scores of 
weak men and women were made insane by excitement, and became inmates 
of mad houses. The appointed day passed by. The earth moved on in its ac- 
custom-ed course upon the great higiiway of the ecliptic. The faith of thou- 
sands gave way, and infidelity poured its slimy flood over the wrecks. And 
these were many — very many. Full thirty thousand people embraced the doctrine 
of Miller, and had unbounded faith in his interpretation of all prophecy. Alas ! 
who shall estimate the desolation of true religion in the hearts of that multitude, 
when the delusion vanished like a dream at dawn? In the course of a few 
weeks the excitement subsided, and soon tiie rushing torrent of delusion dwin- 
dled into an almost imperceptible rill. Mr. Miller acknowledged his error, and 
seldom preached about the Millennium. He died at Hampton, "Washington 
County. New York, on the 29th of December, 1849, at the age of seventy-eight 
years. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, in North Carolina, was settled chiefly by Scotch- 
Irish and their descendants, and when the War for Independence broke 
out, the people of that section were so zealous and active in the cause of popular 
liberty, that Mecklenburg was called The Hornet's Nest. Among the energetic 
patriots who led the rebellion there, were the relatives of James Knox Polk, the 
eleventh President of the United States. He was born in that Hornet's Nest, on 
the 2d of November, 1795, and was the eldest of ten children. His father was 
an enterprising farmer, and a warm supporter of Jefferson. When James was 
eleven years of age, his family removed from Mecklenburg to the wilderness, on 
the banks of a branch of the Cumberland river, in Tennessee, and there the future 
President passed the greater portion of his life. The wilderness disappeared before 
the hand of cultivation, and that portion of Tennessee became famous for its 
productiveness. 

After acquiring a fair English education, James was placed with a merchant 
to be fitted for commercial life. The pursuit was not congenial to his taste, and 
after some preparatory studies, he entered the University of North Carolina, in 
the Autumn of 1815, to be educated for a professional life. He was one of the 
most remarkable students in that institution, and, at the end of three years, he 
was graduated with the highest honors. His character in after life was fore- 
shadowed there ; for he never missed a recitation, nor omitted the punctilious 
performance of his duty. At the beginning of 1819, he commenced the study 
of law with Felix Grundy; and, in 1820, was admitted to the bar. He had 
suffered feeble health from childhood, but the energies of his mind overcame the 
infirmities of his body, and he soon arose to the front rank in his profession. 
His talent and urbanity won him many friends; and, in 1823, he was elected to 

1. During the Summer and early Autumn of 1843, the pencil and graver of the writer were frequently- 
brought into requisition in making illustrative pictures for the Arch Saints of the new faith, who em- 
ploved the press. At sunset, on the evening previous to "the last day" a person connected with The 
Midnight Cry, came rushing into my studio in hot haste, and anxiously implored me to draw and en- 
grave two flying angels with trumpets, hef#re eleven o'clock that night, for the last hours for doing good 
on earth were rapidly passing away. The "'commission" was executed in time. I shall never forget 
the appearance of the dozen men in the offlce of the Cry, when I handed the little pictures to the pub- 
lisher, and received my pay without being asked for a " bill of particulars." It was a " serious family" 
indeed ; yet there appeared to be one or two Aminidab Sleek's among them, who, like Judas, had charge 
of Ibe treasury bag, and evidently expected to have a place in the next census. 



JAMES KNOX POLK. 



889 




a seat in the legislature of Tennessee. As a warm personal and political friend 
of General Jackson, he was chiefly instrumental in drawing him from his retire- 
ment, and electing him a United States Senator. In August, 1825, Mr. Polk, 
then thirty years of age, was chosen a representative in the Federal Congress, 
where he was distinguished for his faithfulness in every thing, and as a demo- 
cratic republican of tlie strictest stamp. He took a position of highest respect, 
at once, and was one of the most efficient opposers of the administration of Pres- 
ident Adams. Year after year he was continued a member of the House of 
Eepresentatives by the suffrage of his admiring constituents. As chairman of 
important committees, he was indefatigable in labor and careful in the prepara- 
tion of reports. He took sides with President Jackson against the Bank of the 
United States, at the beginning, and was one of its most powerful enemies in 
the popular branch of the Federal legislature. His course arrayed against him 
the friends of the Bank, and efforts were made to defeat his reelection. But he 
was always triumphant. In 1835, he was elected Speaker of the House of 
Pspresentatives, and was reelected in 1837. Never was the presiding officer 
of that body more vigorously assailed and annoyed than Mr. Polk, yet with dig- 
nified equanimity he kept on consistently in his course of duty, and the House 
thanked him for his services. 

After a service in Congress of fourteen years, Mr. Polk declined a reelection, 
in 1839, and the same year he was elected governor of Tennessee by a very large 



390 LEONARD WOODS. 



majority. He was nominated for Vice-President of the Uuitcd States, with Mr. 
Van Buren, by the Legislature of Tennessee, andjn other States, but received only 
one electoral vote. He was an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Tennessee, 
in 1841, and also in 1843 ; and from that time until his elevation to the Presidency 
of the United States, in 1845, he remained in private life. His acho'nistration of 
four years was a stormy one, and included the period of the Mexican war, the 
excitements incident to tlie Oregon boundary question, and the finding of gold 
in California. His administration will be looked back to as a brilliant one. It 
is yet too early to judge of its permanent effects upon the commonwealth. The 
verdict must be awarded by another generation. 

President Polk retired from office in March, 1849, and died at his residence 
at Nashville, Tennessee, on the l5th of Juno following, at the age of tifcy-four 
years. 



LEONARD WOODS. 

" T)LESSED are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." 
-D So spake the Head of the Church ; and the fulfilment of that promise 
was eminently exemplified in the person of Leonard Woods, D.D., the father of 
the Andover Theological Seminary. In the history of the Presbyterian Church, 
in New England, he appears prominent as a peace-maker, at a time when con- 
tention about. unessential points of doctrine and discipline menaced their unity; 
and all over the Union ho was intimately known and loved as a "child of God." 
Leonard Woods was born in Princeton, Massachusetts, on the 19th of June, 
1774, and, like the infant Franklin, he was baptized on the day of his birth. He 
was educated at Harvard University, where he was graduated in 1796. Ho 
taught school at Medford, for a while ; and after studying theology under Dr. 
Backus, of Connecticut, for three months, ho entered the Christian mmistry, by 
ordination at West Newbury, in 1798. At that time there was a warm conten- 
tion between Dr. Morse,' of Charlestown, and Dr. Spring.- of Newburyport, the 
former planting his foot firmly upon the Westminster catechism as a basis of 
faith for individuals as Avell as for the General Association, and the latter willing 
to be more latitudinarian in both faith and polity. Dr. Morse promulgated his 
views in the Fanoplisf, and Dr. Spring gave his arguments through the Mission- 
ary Majazine. Mr. Woods was known as a vigorous writer, and both divines 
endeavored to secure the services of his pen. He wrote for the Pano^-list, and' 
then commenced his long career as a theologian. 

Mr. Woods soon discovered that Drs. Morse and Spring had each projected a 
theological seminary, without the knowledge of the other, and that each had 
selected the same locality. The comprehensive and benevolent mind of Mr. 
Woods immediately devised a plan to fraternize the belhgerents, and to prevent 
the great evil that would flow from the establishment of two seminaries hold- 
ing conflicting views. He applied to men of both parties, and after a series 
of negotiations for six months, carried on with great skill, he broke down the 
partition, and had the pleasure of seeing those men unite in founding one sem- 

1. Rev. Jedediah Morse, D.D., the father of Professor S. F. B. Morse, the inventor of the electro- 
magnetic telegraph. Dr. Morse was pastor of a church at Charlestown about thirty-two years, and died 
at New Haven, in June, 1826, at the age of sixty-five years. He was the first American author of a 
(reography. He also wrote a History of iha Amjrican Revolution, and prepared a Gazetteer. 

2. Rev. Samuel Spring, D.D., was some sixteen years older than Dr. Morse. He was the chaplain of 
Arnold's regiment, in the expedition from the Kennebec to the St. Tiawrence, in 177.5. He was the father 
of the Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D., pastor of the church fronting the City Hall Park, New York. He 
dieJ in .March, 1819, aged seventy -three years. 



TIMOTHY FLINT. 391 



inary, their respective publications merged into one, and the General Association 
placed upon a firmer basis than ever. Andover was chosen as the locality for 
tlie seminary, and, by common consent, the person who had secured the happy 
union, was chosen the first professor in the new institution. The seminary was 
founded in 1808, and the same year he was inaugurated Abbott Professor of 
Christian Theology. In that position he labored until 1846, a period of thirty- 
eight years, when ho resigned its duties into younger hands, and was made 
Emeritus Professor in the same institution. 

Dr. Woods was distinguished for his zealous encouragement of every effort 
directed to the promotion of morality and the spread of the Gospel. "Within the 
sphere of his infiuenco, several of the noblest societies of our day had their ger- 
mination and early culture, among which the American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, and the American Tract Society, are the most prominent. 
The cause of Temperance, Education, Human Freedom, all found in Dr. Woods 
a vt^arm and judicious friend. After his retirement from the seminary, he care- 
fully revised his theologic:il lectures and miscellaneous works, and superintended 
their publication, in five volumes. During the last few years of his life he was 
engaged in writing a history of the seminary over which he had presided so 
long. It was almost completed at the time of his death, when, according to his 
expressed desire, it was placed in the hands of his son, to be completed from 
materials that he had left, and then published. Dr. Woods died at Andover, on 
the 24th of August, 1854, at the ago of little more than eighty 3^ears. The simple 
inscription for the stone that should mark his grave was found in his will 



TIMOTHY FLINT. 

YERY few men in private life have engaged so large a share of public atten- 
tion and cordial esteem as Timothy Flint, especially in the Great West, 
beyond the Alleghanies. Though bearing the heavy burden of ill health for 
many weary years, he labored incessantly in the inviting fields of science, lit- 
erature, and history. He was a native of North Reading, Massachusetts, where 
he was born in July, 1780. He was graduated at Harvard University, in 1800, 
and entered immediately upon the study of theology, preparatory to assuming 
the labors of a gospel minister. He became pastor of a Congregational church 
at Lunenburg, in his native State, in 1802, where he performed liis responsible 
duties with fidelity for twelve years. In the meanwhile, he enriched his mind 
with much scientific knowledge, and was very fond of philosophical experiments. 
Some ignorant neighbors, seeing him at work with his alembic and crucibles, in 
chemical experiments, charged him with the crime of counterfeiting coin. In 
defence of his character he prosecuted the slanderer. Unpleasant feelings grew 
into bitterness, and as Mr. Flint differed in politics from most of his congregation, 
who were Federalists and opposed to the war then in progress, he thought it 
expedient to resign his pastoral charge, in 1814. After preaching in several 
parishes in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, ho accepted, from a missionary 
society in Connecticut, tlie appointment of a Gospel laborer in the Ohio and 
Mississippi valleys. In the pleasant month of September, 1815, he started for 
the Far West, with his wife and three children, in a two-horse wagon. For 
several years he spread the glad tidings of Christianity over Ohio, Indiana, Ken- 
tucky, and Missouri, when he resigned his mission, tried farming, and, with the 
assistance of his wife, taught several pupils, who became inmates of his family. 
In 1822, Mr. Flint and his fiimily wont down the Mississippi to New Orleans. 



892 AMBROSE SPENCER. 



After a short residence near the borders of Lake Pontchartrain, he went to Alex- 
andria, on the Red River, and tliere took charge of a collegiate school. His 
health gave way; and, in 1825, he went to the North, and on reaching the 
house of a friend at Salem, Massachusetts, greatly emaciated, he told him he 
had come there to die. The change of climate was beneficial, and while under 
the roof of that friend he wrote the first part of his Recollections of Ttn Years' 
Residence and Travels in the Mississijypi Valley. It was published in 1826, and 
attracted much attention throughout the United States and Europe. It was 
republished in London, and parts ol' it were translated and published in Paris. 
AVith renewed health he joined his family at Alexandria, in the Autumn of 1826, 
and then commenced writing his first novel — Francis Berrmn, or the Mexican 
Patriot. He again went to New England, the following Spring, published his 
new work, and returned to Alexandria, in the Autumn. In 1828, he removed 
to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained engaged chiefly in literary pursuits, for 
almost seven years. During that time he wrote and published Arthur Glaver- 
ing ; HiaUyry and Geography of the Western States; George Ifason, or the Back- 
woodsman; and Shoshonee Valley. He edited a monthly magazine, entitled The 
Western Review^ for three years. He also wrote a sketch of the Life of Daniel 
Boone; a narrative of the adventures and explorations of a pioneer named Pattie; 
and coxa^\\ei\. Q. History of the Indian Wars of the West. In 1833, Mr. Flint re- 
moved to New York city, and became editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine, but 
ill health compelled him to relinquish it before the end of that year. He soon 
afterward went to Alexandria, where a sou and daughter were living, and there 
he spent a greater part of the remainder of his days. His Summers were passed 
in New England. On the last visit to his friends there, he took with him the 
manuscript of the second part of his Recollections of the Mississippi Valley. He 
died at the house of one of his friends in Salem, on the 16th of August, 1840, at 
the age of sixty years. " Of a genius highly imaginative and poetical, he 
united v/itii -x vigorous intellect and discriminating judgment a quick sensibility, 
and warm affections, a vivid perception and enjoyment, a deep-felt and ever 
grateful reeognitiou of the Author of the beautiful, grand and lovely in nature, 
of the trae and good, the elevated and pure, the brilliant and divinely-gifted in 
human endowments and character." 



AMBROSE SPENCER. 

ONE of the most active and influential of the jurists and politicians of the State 
of New York, was Ambrose Spencer, a native of Salisbury, Connecticut, 
where he was born on the 13th of December, 1765. His father was a farmer 
and mechanic, yet his limited pecuniary means did not prevent his exercise of a 
wise discretion, in giving his two sons, Ambrose and Philip, a good education. 
They both entered Yale College, as students, in the Autumn of 1779, where 
they remained three years, and after studying twelve months longer at Harvard 
University, they were graduated there in July, 1783. Ambrose was then only 
seventeen years and six months old. He commenced the study of law with 
John Canfield, of Sharon, and completed his course with Mr. Gilbert, of Hudson, 
New York. Before he was nineteen years of age, he married a daughter of his 
earliest law preceptor, settled at Hudson, and commenced the practice of his 
profession there. The clerkship of that city was given to him, in 1786; and, in 
1793, he was elected a representative of Columbia county in the State legislature 
Two years afterward he was elected to the State Senate, for three years ; and, 



HORATIO GREENOUGH. 398 

in 1798, was reelected to the same office, for four years. In the meanwhile ho 
had been chosen assistant attorney-p^eneral of the State, for the counties of Co- 
lumbia and Rensselaer; and, in 1802, he was appointed attorney-general. At 
that time he was confessedly at the head of the bar in the State of New York, 
as an advocate, counsellor, and jurist. His talents were appreciated ; and, in 
ISO-l, he was appointed one of the justices of the Supreme Court of that State. 
Although he was always remarkable for his strict attention to his judicial 
basiness, he became an active and widely potential politician of the demo- 
cratic school. He had been a Federalist, but joined the Republican party at an 
early day in its history. Ho and Dewitt Clinton were warm personal and polit- 
ical friends for many years, and acted in concert in the Republican party until 
1812, when they took different views of the question of war with Great Britain. 
Judge Spencer warmly supported President Madison, in his hostile measures, 
and in his own State h3 labored shoulder to shoulder with Governor Tompkins 
in opposition to a groat moneyed scheme. At that time he wielded^ imraenso 
political influence in his State, and his support was considered so important 
by President Madison, that Judge Spencer might have received any oflBce asked 
for, in the gift of the chief magistrate. 

In 1819, Judge Spencer was raised to the seat of chief justice of the State of 
New York, but retired from the bench in 1823, and resumed the practice of his 
profession in the city of Albany. In 1821, he was a representative in the con- 
vention to amend tho constitution of the State. He took great interest in its 
procjeJings, and many sections of the now instrument bear the impress of his 
strong practical mind. After retiring from the bench, Judge Spencer was mayor 
of Albany, filled several public stations in his own State; and, in 1829, was 
elected to a seat in the Federal Congress, where he served two years. 

For many years toward the close of his life Judge Spencer was deeply engaged 
in agricultural pursuits, in the vicinity of Albany. He left these, in 1839, and 
made his residence in the pleasant village of Lyons, in Wayne county. In 1844, 
liej)resided at the. Whig National Convention, held at Baltimore, when Henry 
Clay was nominated for the chief magistracy of the Republic. His last pubhc 
act was tho issuing of a letter to his fellow-citizens, in which he opposed the 
provision of the new constitution of the State, by which judges were made elective 
by the people. His sands of life were now almost run out; and on the 13th of 
March, 1848, his spirit went home, when he was in the eighty-third year of his 
age. 



HORATIO OKEENOUaH. 

" A RT, though a grand and beautiful, is not a universal language, and when 
i\ her gifted votaries are also priests at the altar of humanity, they are 
doubly mourned and honored." Such was the just reflection of the intimate 
personal friend' of Greenough, the Sculptor, expressed in closing a brief memoir 
of that gifted and earth-lost artist. Throughout life, Greenough was, indeed, 
a "priest at the altar of humanity," for his noble soul was the eager recipient of 
all good impressions, and his heart and hand were the almoners of a multitude of 

1. Henry T. Tuckerman, Esq., whose Memorial of Greenough, published bv Putnam in a small yol- 
ume, is a most beautiful tribute of a warm heart to the memory of a beloved friend and brilliant genius. 
That little volume also contains many of the literary productions of the artist, and tributes of others to 
his genius, in prose and verse. I am indebted to Mr. Tuckerman for the accompanying portrait, which 
is a copy of a fine daguerreotype from life, in his possession ; and to his Memorial for the principal facts 
in this sketch. 



!94 



HORATIO GREENOUGH. 




'^^^^^^^f^/^^p-e^^^-y-^^c^-^^^^ 



bounties. Superior to all jealousies, he recognized no rivals in art, for all who 
loved the Good, the Beautiful and the True, were loved by him and reciprocated 
that love. 

Horatio Greenough was born in Boston, on the 6th of September, 1805. His 
father was one of those enterprising merchants who, at the commencement of 
our century, held highest social position in the New England metropolis. The 
home of the gifted child of whom we are writing, was a model of excellent in- 
fluences, and his education was entrusted to the most eminent instructors. His 
genius, and his taste for art, were developed simultaneously in his early child- 
hood; and hours devoted by other boys in romping plaj^, were employed by him 
in carving toys for his companions, the implements of his atdier being a pencil, 
knife and scissors. One day he sat upon the doorstep of a neighbor,^ and with 
his pen-knife and a nail, he fashioned from plaster, in miniature form, the head 
of a Roman, copied from a coin. He was watclied by the lady of the house, 
who became the possessor of that earliest of his works of art, and in after years 
gave him his first commission. For her he produced that beautiful ideal bust, 
of the Genius of Love. His boyish efforts were appreciated, and artists and arti- 
sans gave him aid and encouragement. Librarians lent him books, and he 
studied and wrought, and wrought and studied, for he felt irrepressible desires 
to express his ideas in tangible art. Yet he did not neglect learning, the com- 
panion of all true art ; and in the Academy and in the College, he was always 



HORATIO GREENOUGH. 395 

a thoughtful, assiduous and successful student. His perceptions were active, his 
memory remarkably attentive,' and his thirst for knowledge was ardent. His 
physical developement kept pace with his mental activity, and he excelled in all 
manly exercises. He was the intimate and loving friend of Allston the poet- 
painter, and they became as one in sentiment and feeling, for tiieir souls affiliated 
by mutual attraction. 

Sometimes Greenough would express his thoughts in Painting; sometimes in 
Poetry, but most frequently in Sculpture. To the latter art he dedicated his 
genius ; and soon after the close of his collegiate studies, ho went to Italy as a 
pupil of art and nature there. He took up his residence in Rome, and was the 
lirst American student of art who made the Eternal City his permanent abiding 
place. There he studied and wrought in a far higher sphere of influence and 
cflbrt, than when in his college days. There he enjoyed the friendship of Thor- 
walsden, the great Danish Sculptor ; and with the purest of our living painters, Mr. 
Weir, he occupied rooms in the house of Claude, on the Pincian Hill. The aky 
bent in beauty over them, but from the Pontine Marshes came a deadly malaria 
that menaced the life of the young sculptor, and with his friend and brother 
artist, ho returned home. His" health was soon restored, and he again sailed for 
Europe. While tarrying in Paris, the generous Cooper was his friend ; and there 
he executed a bust of^La Fayette, more truthful, in the estimation of judges, 
than that of the same subject produced by the eminent David. He did not re- 
main long in Paris, but hastened across the Alps, and took up his abode in a 
somewhat dreary "palace" near the Pinti Gate. For a long dme he waited 
there for a commission. Cooper was again the encouraging friend, and, at his 
request, Greenougli produced for him that exquisite group. The Chanting Cherubs. 
Tliat work, in the hands of such a zealous possessor, introduced the Sculptor to 
his countrymen, and his successful career then commenced. 

We cannot, in this brief memoir, follow the artist in ah his pleasant, laborious 
life, from the modelling of his Abel, in 1826, until the completion of The Rescue, 
in 1851.'' The work In which he took the greatest pride, because cf the sub- 
ject, was his collossal statue of Washington, completed in 1843, and now oc- 
cupying the public square eastward of the Federal Capitol. He executed moro 
than twenty other ideal groups or single statues, and a great many busts of living 
men, but that will bo his chief memorial in the public mind. For many 3^ears in 
Florence — beautiful, classic Florence — his studio, a model of its class, was on 
the Piazza Maria Antonia; and there he dispensed a generous but unostenta- 
tious hospitality. Finally, in the Autumn of 1851, ho returned to his native 
land, ostensibly to erect liis group of The Rescue, but really to breathe again the 
free air of the Republic. He chose Newport as his place of residence, and there 
he resolved to erect a studio, and leave his country no more. He had become 
acclimated in Italy, and the changeful seasons here disturbed him. Here ho 
lacked the quiet social routine of Florence. All around him was activity to 
which he had not been accustomed, and his whole being became excited, _ A 
brain fever ensued, and after a few days' illness, he expired in the bosom of his 
loving family, at the ago of little moro than forty-seven years. That sad event 
occurred at Newport, on the 18th of December, 1852. So perished in the merid- 
ian of his life and fame, a noble, kindly and generous man ; and an artist whose 
works form a part of the rising glory of our country. 



1_. While yet a mere boy, he could repeat two thousand lines of English verse, without error or hesi- 

2. This is a colossal group ordered by Congress for the Federal O.ipitol. It consists of four figures a 
mother and child, an American Indian and the father. It is intended to illustrate the unavoiaabie con- 
flict between the Anglo-Saxon and the aboriginal races. 



396 HUGH MERCER.— EGBERT IL PATTERSON. 



HUQH MEKOER. 

ON the first day of December, 1853, Colonel Hugh Mercer, the foster-child of 
the Republic, died at the " Sentry-Box," his pleasant residence, near Fred- 
ericksburg, Virginia, at the age of little more than seventy -seven years. Ho 
was a son of the brave General Hugh Mercer, who was mortally wounded in 
the battle at Princeton, on the morning of the 3d of January, 1777, and who is re- 
vered as one of the eminent martyrs of liberty, who fought for American Inde- 
pendence. That brave soldier was a native of Scotland, and was a surgeon on 
the bloody field of Culloden, in 1745. Ten years later he was the companion- 
in-arms of Washington, in the sanguinary conflict on the Mouongahela, where 
Braddock was killed; and when another ten years had elapsed, he loft his 
apothecary shop, his medical practice, and his beloved family, and drew his 
sword for the liberties of his adopted country. Sixt^'-threc days after he had 
fallen on the battle-field, the Continental Congress resolved to erect a monument 
to his memory, in Fredericksburg, with a suitable inscription; and also resolved, 
"That the eldest son of General Warren,' and the youngest son of General Mer- 
cer, be educated, from this time, at the expense of the United States." 

That "youngest son of General Mercer" was the subject of our brief memoir.2 
He was born at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in July, 1776. His mother was Isa- 
bella Gordon, who survived her martyred husband about ten years, and during 
t'lat time made an indelibb impression of her own excellence of character upon 
that of her son. He was educated at William and Mary College, in Virginia, 
during its palmiest days, while under the charge of the good Bishop Madison. 
For a long series of years he was colonel of the militia of his native county 
(Spottsylvania), and for twenty years he was an active magistrate. For five 
consecutive years he represented his district in the Virginia legislature, when, 
preferring the sweets of domestic life, to the turmoils of politics and pubhc office, 
be declined a reelection. He was soon afterward chosen president of the branch 
bank of Virginia^ located at Fredericksburg, and held that situation until his 
death. Throughout his long life, Colonel Mercer enjoyed almost uninterrupted 
health until a short time before his departure. He was greatly beloved by those 
who were related to him by ties of consanguinity or friendship, and was univer- 
sally esteemed for his solid worth as an honorable, energetic, and methodical 
business man and superior citizen. He was one of the few noble specimens of 
the Virginia gentleman of the old school ; and was the last survivor of the mar- 
tyr's family, which consisted cf four sons and a daughter. 



ROBERT M.PATTERSON. 

ONE of the most illustrious scientific men of our age and country, was Dr. 
Robert M. Patterson, of Philadelphia, who is better known to the public in 
general as the accomplished Director of the United States Mint, during many of 
the latter years of his life. He was a son of Dr. Robert Patterson, a distin- 
guished professor in the University of Pennsylvania. Director of the Mint, and 
President of the American Philosophical Society, all of which stations his eminent 

1. See sketch of Joseph Warren. 

2. A portrait of Colonel Mercer may be found in Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution, 
page 668 of the second edition. 



SAKGEANT S. PRENTISS. 397 

son afterward filled. That son was born in Philadelphia, in 17 8*7, was educated 
at the University of Pennsylvania, and at an early age was graduated there, as 
a ph} sician. He pursued medical studies in Europe, for several years, and' re- 
turned to his native city in 1812, with the intention of engaging in his profession 
there. Being immediately appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy in the 
medical department of the University, and soon afterward of Mathamatics and 
Natural Philosophy in the classical department, he was diverted from practice. 
At the age of twenty-seven years he was elected Vice-Provost of that institution. 
Having paid much attention to the science of engineering, he was invited by the 
Committee of Safety of Baltimore, in 1813, to lay out and superintend the con- 
struction of fortifications there, the city being menaced by the British. He per- 
formed the duty so satisfactorily, that he won a public vote of thanks. 

For fourteen _years Dr. Patterson remained a professor in the University, and 
was always distinguished for extensive and varied scientific attainments. Other 
objects of taste and refinement occupied his attention. He was one of the 
founders and most efficient officers of the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia, the 
pioneer association, of its kind, in this country. In 1820, he joined, with others, 
in establishing the Musical Fund Society, which was also the first of its class, 
and is still [1886] a rich and prosperous institution. Ho was its president for 
many years, and its most efficient member, from the beginning. The American 
Philosophical Society, of which ho became a member at the age of twenty-one 
years, was his favorite institution, and after the death of the eminent Dr. Chap- 
man, he was elected its president. That chair, so worthily filled by Dr. Frank- 
lin, Rittenhouse, Duponceau, and others, was as worthily occupied by Dr. Pat- 
terson. 

In 1828, Dr. Patterson accepted an invitation to occupy the chair of Natural 
Philosophy in the University of Virginia. After seven years' service there, 
President Jackson appointed him Director of the United States Mint. He held 
that responsible station during several administrations, until 1851, when rapidly 
declining health compelled him to resign. He was then President of the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society, and of the Pennsylvania Life Annuity Company; 
also Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the 
Blind. His was a liberal heart, and it was ever devising liberal things. Every 
impulse of his nature was pure and benevolent, and every scheme having for its 
object the good of humanity always enlisted his sympathj^, and his hearty co- 
operation. His intercourse with society was exemplary in the highest degree, 
and he imparted a charm to every social circle which was favored by his presence. 
His death, which occurred in Philadelphia, on the 5th of September, 1854, was 
regarded as a publio calamity, for a man of great usefulness had departed. 



SAKGEANT S. PRENTISS. 

AN intellectual luminary of great and increasing splendor went out and faded 
from the political and social firmament, when Sargeant S. Prentiss disap- 
peared from earth, on the 1st of July, 1850, at the age of about forty years. The 
brilliancy of his genius as a statesman of the highest order had just begun to 
excite the admiration of the nation, when the dark clouds of broken health veiled 
it, and its light soon waned into invisibility. He was a native of Portland, 
Maine, where he was born in 1810. He received an excellent classical 
education, and at the age of about eighteen years he went to Mississippi, 



IIEXr.Y CLAY 



where, in the vicinity of Natcliez, he spent abont two years as tutor in a 
private famil}', and in the pursuit of legal gtudies, under the instruction ( f 
General Felix Houston. Mr. Prentiss was always remarkable, from boyhood, 
for fluency of language and ready wit; and his first speech to a jury, after being 
admitted to the bar, won for him the highest applause from judges, colleagues, 
and opponents. He made Yicksburg (then a small village) his residence, in 
1830, and he soon became the acknowledged head of his profession in that region. 
His eloquence was of that popular order which always charms and overpowers ; 
and, like O'Connell, he could adapt his words and figures to liis particular audi- 
ence, with wonderful facility. His practice became very lucrative, and the pay- 
ment of his fee, in land, for his successful management of a suit which involved 
the most valuable portion of Yicksburg, made him, in a short time, one of the 
wealthiest men in the State. 

Mr. Prentiss entered the field of politics with great enthusiasm, and was a 
brilliant and successful stump orator ; but at about the time when his fellow- 
citizens called him to service in the national councils, he became embarrassed 
during the financial troubles of 1836, and removed to New Orleans to retrieve 
his fortune by professional labor. He first became known to the people of the 
United States, in general, when, in 1837, he appeared in the House of Represent- 
atives as the claimant of a disputed seat there. His speech in favor of his claim 
was listened to with the most profound attention, and it was admitted by all, 
that he had no superior in the country as an eloquent and logical parliamentary 
debater. His claim was rejected by the casting-vote of the Speaker, Mr. Polk, 
and he was sent back to the people. He at once canvassed the State, and was 
reelected by an overwhelming vote. His services in the Hall of Representatives 
were brief, but brilliant in the extreme. Private engagements, and a distaste for 
political life, produced by his discovery of its hollowness and its dangers, caused 
him to refuse office, and with great industry he applied himself to his profession, 
in New Orleans. Ho was eminently successful. No man ever possessed greater 
powers of fascination by his forensic oratory than he, and few jurors could with- 
stand that power. Nor was he entirely absorbed in professional duties. He 
was distinguished for his love and knowledge of hterature, and he was always 
prominent in philanthropic movements in the chosen city of his residence. • His 
social qualities were of the highest order, and the attachment of his friends was 
exceedingly strong. In the midst of his active career, and bearing the blossoms 
of greatest promise, he was suddenly cut down by disease, and died at Long- 
wood, near Natchez, in the pleasant Summer time. 

" What made more sad, the outward form's decay, 
A soul of genius glimmered through the clay ; 
Genius has' so much youth, no care can kill, 
Death seems unnatural when it sighs, 'Be still."* 



HENRY CLAY. 

A FEW miles from the old Hanover court-house, in Yirginia, where the splen- 
A dors of Patrick Henry's genius first beamed forth, is a humble dwelling by 
the road-side, in the midst of a poor region, technically called slashes. There, 
on the 12th of April, 1777, Henry Clay, the great American statesman, was born, 
and from the poor district schools of his neighborhood, he derived his education. 
His father was a clergyman with slender worldly means, and at an early age 
Henry became a copyist in the office of the clerk of the Court of Chancery, at 



HENIir CLAY. 



8911 




Bichmond. There the extraordinary powers of his intollect began to develope, 
and at the age of nineteen years ho commenced the study of law. Close appli- 
cation and a remarkably retentive memory overcame many difficulties, and ho 
was admitted to practice at the age of twenty. At that time emigration was 
pouring steady streams of population over the mountains into the fertile valleys of 
Kentucky, and thither Henry Clay went, early in 1799, and settled at Lexing- 
ton. He was admitted to the bar there, in the Autumn of that year, and com- 
menced the practice of law and politics at about the same time, and with equal 
success. A convention was called to revise the constitution of Kentucky, and 
young Clay worked manfully in efforts to elect such delegates as would favor 
the emancipation of the slaves. Thus early that subject assumed great import- 
ance in his mind ; and throughout his long life he earnestly desired the abolition 
of the slave system. His course offended many, and he was unpopular for a 
time; but his noble opposition to the Alien and Sedition laws restored him to 
favor; and, in 1803, he was elected a member of the Kentucky legislature, by a 
large majority. With fluent speech, sound logic, and bold assurance, he soon 
took front rank in that body, as well as in his profession; and, in 1806, he 
was chosen to fill a scat in tlio Senate of the United States, for one year, made 
vacant by the resignation of Grcncral Adair. There he left an impression of that 



400 HENRr CLAY. 



statesmanship, then budding, which afterward gave_^ glory and dignity to that 
higliest legislative council of the Republic. * 

On hi.s return from the Federal city, Mr. Clay was again elected to a seat in 
the Kentucky legislature, and was chosen Speaker of the Assembly, by a largo 
majority. That station he held during two consecutive sessions. In 1809, he 
was again sent to the Senate of the United States, for two years, to fill a, vacancy, 
and there he became distinguished by several brilliant speeches on important 
occasions. A crisis in the aftairs of the nation was then approaching. Men of 
the highest character for talent and integrity were needed in the national coun- 
cils. Perceiving this, the Kentuckians wisely elected Henry Clay to a scat in 
the House of Representatives, at Washington, where he first appeared in 1811. 
Almost immediately afterward, he was elected Speaker, by a largo majority-, and 
he performed the very important duties of that station with great ability until 
1814, when he was appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate a treaty of 
peace with Great Britain. In that service he exhibited the skill of a good 
diplomatist; and when, in 1815, ho returned to his constituents, they immediately 
reelected him to a seat in Congress. Nov/ commenced his series of important 
services in the Federal legislature, which have distinguished him as one of tho 
first statesmen of his age. There lie triumphantly pleaded the cause of the South 
American Republics; and, in 1818, ho put forth his giant strength in behalf of 
a national system of internal improvements. A grateful people commemorated 
his services in that direction, by placing a monument on the margin of the great 
Cumberland road, inscribed with liis name. 

In 1819 and 1820, Mr. Clay entered upon the great work, in Congress, of 
establishing tariffs for the protection of American industry. At the same time, ho 
rendered signal services in tho adjustment of the question known as tho Missouri 
compromise. Then ho retired from Congress, to attend to his embarrassed private 
affairs. Three years of professional services retrieved his pecuniary losses ; and in 
]823, he returned toCoxigress, and was elected Speaker, by an immense majority. 
During that session Daniel Webster presented his famous resolutions in behalf 
of the suffering Greeks, and Mr. Clay warmly seconded the benevolent move- 
ment of the great New England statesman. After the election of John Quincy 
Adams to the presidency of the United States, Mr. Clay was appointed his Sec- 
retary of State, and hald the office until the accession of General Jackson to the 
chief magistracy, in 1829. He remained in retirement a short time; and, in 
1831, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, for six years. Ho was 
soon afterward nommated for the office of President of the United States, and 
was tho candidate opposed to the successful Jackson, in 1832. At about that 
time he was instrumental, by the proposition of a compromiso measure in Con- 
gress, in saving the country "from civil war. He was reelected to the Senate, in 
183G; and, in 1342, ho took, as he supposed, a final leave of that body. Ho 
had earnestly labored for his favorite protective policy; and, in 1844, the Whig 
party nominated him for the office of President of the United States. He was 
defeated by I^Ir. Polk, and ho remained in retirement until 1849, when he was 
again elected to the Federal Senate. There he put forth his energies in securing 
that series of measures known as the Compromise Act of 1850. His health was 
now greatly impaired ; and in the Winter of 1850 and 1851, lie sought relief 
by a visit to Havana and New Orleans. The effort was of no avail. Notwith- 
standing his feeble health, he repaired to Washington city at the commencement 
of tho session, but was unable to participate in active duties. His system grad- 
ually gave way, and he resigned his seat, the act to take effect on the 6th of 
September, 1852- He did not live to see that day. He died at Washington 
city, on the 2i)tb of June, 1852, at the age of about seventy-five years. 



ROBERT BURNET. 401 



ROBERT BURNET. 

ON a cold, frosty, but clear and brilliant morning in November, 1783, the rem- 
nant of the American Continental army, led by General Knox, and accom- 
panied by civil officers of the State, crossed King's bridge, at the upper end of 
Manliattan Island, and marched triumphantly into the city of New Yoik, just as 
the British troops, who had occupied that city for seven long years, embarked in 
the harbor, to return no more. Great rejoicings and feastings were had in the 
emancipated city; and nine days afterward, tlie principal officers of the arm}^, 
yet remaining in the service, assembled at the public-house of Samuel Fraunce, 
on the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, to take a final leave of their beloved 
commander-in-chief When Washington entered the room where they were 
waiting, ho took a glass of wine in his hand, and said, "With a full heart of love 
and gratitude. I now take leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter 
days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious 
and honorable." After the usual salutation, by drinking, ho continued, "I can- 
not come to each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged to you if each 
will come and take me by the hand." Knox stood by the side of the Great 
Leader, and as he turned, with eyes brimming with tears, to grasp his hand, 
Washington affectionately kissed him. This he did to all of his officers in turn, 
and then, without uttering a word, he left the room, passed through a flanking 
corps of infantry to a barge at Whitehall, and proceeded on his journey to An- 
napolis, to surrender his commission into the hands of Congress. 

Of all the officers who participated in that tender scene. Major Robert Burnet, 
of Little Britain, Orange county, was, for many years, the sole survivor. His 
father was a Scotchman, and his mother was a native of Ireland. She was one 
of those who accompanied the first members of the Clinton family, who settled 
in the vicinity of Newburgh. Major Burnet v/as born in Little Britain, on the 
22d of February, 1762, and was engaged in agricultural pursuits until about 
1779, when he entered the revolutionary army, in the rrtillcry branch of the 
service, under Captain Ebenczer Stevens.' He was a lieutenant in Stevens* 
company, and commanded Redoubt No. 3, at West Point, at the time of Arnold's 
defection, in September, 1780. He was afterward promoted lo the rank of 
major,2 and was one of the delegates who attended a meeting of the officers, 
convened by Washington, on account of the seditious tendency of the anonymous 
Address put forth by Major Armstrong, at Newburgh, in the Spring of 1783.3 
He continued in the army, under the immediate command of the chief, until it 
was disbanded. In the march into the city of New York, on the day when the 
British evacuated it. Major Burnet commanded the rear-guard. When I visited 
the veteran, in the Summer of 1850, and ho was then in his nintieth year, he 
gave me a very interesting account of the scenes of that memorable Autumn 
morning. Major Burnet was the last to grasp the hand of Washington at that 
solemn parting at Fraunce's ; and then he returned to his rural pursuits in the 
town of his nativity. There he lived in the enjoyment of great domestic happi- 
ness, until called to his final home. He lived to see, what few men in modern 
times have beheld — the living representatives of seven generations of his kin- 

1. See sketch of Ebenezer Stevens. 

2. Washington, in a letter to (ireene, dated " Newburgh, 6th February, 1782," refers to Major Burnet 
as follows : " I intended to write yon a long letter on sundry matters : bnt Major Burnet came unex- 
pectedly, at a time when I was preparing for the celebration of the day, and was just going to a review 
of the troops previous to ihafe'idejoie. Ashe is impatient, from an' apprehension that the sleighing 
may fail, and as he can give yon the occurrences of this quarter more in detail, than I have time to do, I 
will refer you to him." The celebration spoken of was that of the anniversary of the signing of the 
treaty of alliance between the United Slates and France ^'our years before. 

3. See sketch of John Armstion'^ 



402 HAREISON GRAY Oil?. 



dred. These were his great-grandfather of the ancestral part of the connection 
and the great-grandchildren of his own posterit3^ Major Burnet died at hi* 
residence, in Little Britain, on the 1st of December, 1854, when almost ninety- 
three years of age. His funeral was attended by his neighbor, Uzal Knapi), 
who was almost three years his senior, Mr. Knapp, the last survivor of Wath- 
ir)^*on's Life-Guard,^ died about a year afterward. 



HARRISON OR AY OTIS 

OF the New England "gentlemen of the old school," who have graced our 
generation, and illustrated by their deportment the dignified simplicity of 
the earlier years of our Republic, the late Harrison Gray Otis was one of the 
finest examples in person, intellectual acquirements, and amenity of manners. 
He was a son of Samuel A. Otis, who, for about twenty-five years, was clerk of 
the Senate of the United States. Harrison was born in 1765, the memorable" 
year when patriots of his name were manfully battling the odious Stamp Act. 
And the same year when, by definitive treaty, the independence of the United 
States was acknowledged by Great Britain, ho was graduated at Harvard Uni- 
versity, at the ago of eighteen years. He had been a successful student, and ho 
then entered upon the study of law with a preparation possessed by few young 
men. Before he was twenty-one years of ago he had commenced his successful 
career as a practitioner, with promises which were all redeemed in his maturity. 
He soon stood foremost at the bar with such men as Parsons, Lowell, Gore, 
Gushing, Paine, Ames, Cabot, and other distinguished lawyers of New England, 
and was excelled by none of them in acuteness as an attorney, and in impressive 
and graceful oratory as an advocate. His political and literary acquirements 
were as extensive as his legal knowledge, and he often employed them with 
great success before the bench, or an intelligent jury. 

In 1797, Mr. Otis represented the Suffolk (Boston) district in the Federal Con- 
gress, as the successor of Fisher Amos; and he held that station until 1801, 
when the Republicans came into power under the leadership of Mr. Jefferson, 
For many years ho was a member, alternately, of both branches of the Massa- 
chusetts legislature, and, at different times he was the presiding officer of both 
Houses. Although firm and unflinching in his political faith, and exceedingly 
strict as a discipUnarian in official station, his urbanity and rare consistency 
commanded the respect of his opponents and the warmest affections of his ad- 
herents. He was eminently reliable, heartily disliked concealment, and despisod 
stratagem. His constituents always felt their interests perfectly safe in his hands. 

Mr, Otis was chosen United States Senator, in 1817, and his course in that 
body during the exciting scenes preceding the admission of Missouri into the 
Union as a sovereign State, won for him the highest applaus3of his constituents. 
After five years' service there he retired, and contemplated repose in private life ; 
but his fellow-citizens of the Federal faith, for which he had contended manfully 
against the growing Democratic party, in his State, begged him to continue his 
leadership. They nominated him for governor, in 1823, but the Federal party, 
as an efficient organization, was then just expiring, and he was defeated. After 
filling several local offices (judge of the Court of Common Pleas, mayor of Boston, 
and others of less note), Mr. Otis withdrew from public life, in the full enjoyment 
of his inteUectual vigor and his rare capacities for social pleasures. That vigor 
he retained until his death, which occurred in the city of Boston, on the 28th of 
October, 1848, at the age of about eiglity -three years. 

1. Portraits of Major Burnet and Mr, Knapp are published in Lossing's Pictorm? Field- Book o/ the 
Revolution. 



DAA^ID KINNISON. 403 



DAVID KINNISON. 

THE latest survivor of the notable band of patriots, in 17^3, known as The 
Boston Tea Partij} was David Kinnison, who lived to the remarkable ago 
of more than one hundred and fifteen years. Tlie flicts of this brief memoir were 
obtained from his own lips, by the writer, in August, 1848, together with a 
daguerreotype likeness. Ho was then one hundred and eleven years of age. 
He was born in Old Kingston, Maine, on the 17th of November, 1736, and was 
employed in farming until the tempest of the Revolution began to lower. Ho 
was a member of a secret club, who were pledged to destroy the obnoxious 
article of Tea, wheresoever it might be found ; and when the East India Com- 
pany's ships had arrived at Boston, Kinnison and others hastened thither, wero 
among the "Mohawks"" in the gallery of the Old South Church, and assisted in 
casting the two cargoes of tea into the waters of Boston harbor, on the evening 
of the IGth of December, 1773. Kinnison remained in the vicinity of the Now 
England capital, working on a form, until the Spring of 1775, when, as a minute- 
man, he participated in the events at. Lexington and Concord. With his father 
and two brothers, he fought in the battle of Bunker's Hill; and after the British 
were driven from Boston, he accompanied the American army to New York. 
From that time until the Autumn of 1781, he led the life of a Continental sol- 
dier, under the immediate command of Washington most of the time. Then, 
while engaged as a scout in Saratoga, he was captured by some Mohawk Indians, 
and did not regain his liberty until peace came, after a captivity of more than 
eighteen months. 

At the close of the Revolution, Mr. Kinnison resumed the labors of agricul- 
ture, at Danville, Vermont, where ho resided about eight years, and then re- 
moved to Wells, in Maine. There he lived until the commencement of the war 
with Great Britain, in 1812, when he again went to tho field as a private soldier. 
He was under General Brown at Sackett's harbor ; and in tho battle at Williams- 
burg, on the St. Lawrence, he was badly wounded in tho hand by a grape-shot. 
That was the first and only injury he had ever received in battle, but by acci- 
dents afterward, his skull had been fractured ; his collar bono and both legs, 
below the knees, had been broken ; tho heel of a horse had left a deep scar on 
his forehead, and rheumatism had dislocated one of his hip joints. As he forcibly 
expressed it, he had been "completely bunged up and stove in." 

Mr. Kinnison was an ilhterate man, and possessed none of the elements of 
gr-^atness. Ho was eminent because of the peculiar associations of his life, his 
long experience, and his remarkable longevity. He learned to write his name 
when in the revolutionary camp ; and he was sixty -two years of age when his 
granddaughter taught him to read. He had married and buried four wives, 
who had borne him twenty-two children. When he related this narrative, ho 
had lost all trace of his relatives, and supposed himself childless.^ His pension 
of eight dollars a month was insufficient for his wants, and until his one hundred 
and tenth year, he added sufficient for a livelihood, by the labor of his hands. 
Then a benevolent stranger, in Chicago, gave him a home. He was little less 
than six feet in height, with powerful arms, shoulders, and chest ; and at the 

1. See note 3, page 148. 

2. Many of those who cast the tea into Boston harbor were disguised as Mohawk Indians. After a 
harangue in the Old South Church, Boston, just at twilight, some of them gave a war-whoop in the gal- 
lery, and all started for Griliin's wharf, where the ships lay. 

3. About a year before his death, his daughter, living in Oswego, New York, saw the portrait and 
biographical sketch of her long-lost father, in Losninq^K Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution. She i>' 
once hastened to Chicago to see him. Until then, she had no idea that he was among the living. Sb 
remained with him, and smoothed the pillow of his death-bed. 



404 , CATHERINE FERGUSON. 

age of one hundred and two years, he was seen to lift a barrel of cider into a 
wagon, with ease. When one hundred and teit, he walked twenty miles in one 
day. At eighty, his sight and hearing failed. Both were restored at ninety- 
five, and remained quite perfect until his death. That venerable man died at 
Chicago, Illinois, on the 24th of February, 1852, in the one hundred and six- 
teenth year of his age. 



CATHERINE F E R O U S O N . 

" 'PHIS poor widow hath cast in more than they all ; for they did cast in of 
1 their abundance, but she, of her penury, hath cast in all the living that 
she had." Such was the estimate of good works by the Great Pattern of benev- 
olence. The motive and the sacrifice alone are considered ; the person and the 
condition are but '" dust in the balance." Thus judged, Katy Ferguson seems 
entitled to the plaudit from men, angels, and her God, "Well done, good and 
faithful servant." Katy was a colored woman, born a slave while her mother 
was on her passage from Virginia to New York. For almost fifty years she was 
known in that city as a professional cake-maker, for vv'eddings and other parties, 
and was held in the highest esteem. 

When Katy was eight years of age her mother was sold, and they never met 
again. Her own anguish at parting taught her to sympathize with desolate 
cliildren, and they became the great care of her life. Her mistress was kind and 
indulgent, and Katy was allov^ed to attend Divine service, and hear the instruc- 
tions of the good Dr. John M. Mason, the elder. She never learned to read, but 
her retentive memory treasured up a vast amount of Scripture knowledge, which 
she dispensed as opportunity allowed. When she approached womanhood her 
mind became agitated respecting her soul and its destiny, and she ventured to 
call on Dr. Mason for advice and consolation. She went with trembling, and 
was met by the kind pastor with an inquiry whether she had come to talk to 
him about her soul. The question took a burden from her feelings, and she left 
the presence of the good man with a heart full of joy. 

A benevolent lady purchased Katy's freedom for two hundred dollars, when 
she was sixteen years of age, and allowed her one hundred of it, for eleven 
months' service. The excellent Divie Bethune raised the other hui.dred, and 
Katy became free. She married at eighteen, had two children, and lost them, 
and from that time she put forth pious eftbrts fi>r the good of bereaved and des- 
olate little ones. At her humble dwelling in Warren Street, she collected the 
poor and neglected children of the neighborhood, white and black, every Sun- 
day, to be instructed in religious things by herself, and such white people as she 
could get to help her. Sometimes the sainted Isabella Graham would invite 
Katy and her scholars to her house, and there hear them recite the catechism, 
and give them instruction. Finally, Dr. Mason' heard of her school, and visited 
it one Sunday morning. " What are you about here, Katy ?" he asked. " Keep- 
ing school on the Sabbath !" Katy was troubled, for she thought his question a 
rebuke. "This must not be, Katy; you must not be allowed to do all this 
work alone," he continued; and then he invited her to transfer her school to 
the basement of his new church in Murray Street, where he procured assistants 
for her. Such was the origin of the Murray Street Sabbath-school ; and it is 

1. This was the son and pulpit successor of Dr. Mason,.the elder, under whom Katy became converted. 
That excellent pastor died soon after the interview named in the text, at the age of fifty-seven years. 



CATHERINE FERGUSON". 



405 




believed that Katy Ferguson's was the first school of the kind established in the 
city of New York.' 

Katy's benevolent labors did not end with her Sunday-school duties. Every 
Friday evening and Sunday afternoon she gathered the poor and outcast of her 
neighborhood, children and adults, white and black, into her little dwelling, and 
always secured some good man to conduct the services of a prayer-meeting there. 
Such was her habit for forty years, wherever in the great city she dwelt. Her 
good influence was always palpable ; and tract distributors uniformly testified 
that wherever Katy resided, the neighborhood improved. Nor was this all. 
Though laboring for daily bread at small remuneration, she cheerfully divided 
her pittance with unsparing generosity. She always found some more needy 
than herself; and during her life, she took forty-eight children (twenty of 
them white) from the almshouse or from dissolute parents, and hroughi them up 
or kept them until she could find good homes fi)r them! Who shall estimate the 
social blessings which have flowed from tliose labors of love by a poor, unedu- 
cated colored woman ! Do not those labors rebuke, as with a tongue of fire, the 
cold selfishness of society ? Ought they not to make our cheeks tingle with the 
blusli of shame for our remissness in dut}^ ? The example of such a life ought 
not to be lost; and T have endeavored thus to perpetuate the memory of Katy 
Ferguson and her deeds for the benefit of posterity.^ She was a philanthropist 
of truest stamp. Her earthly labors have ceased. She died of cholera, in New 
York, on the 11th of July, 1854, at the age of about seventy-five years. Her 
last words were, " All is well." Who can doubt it? 

1. The Rev. Dr. Ferris, soiiK^titne chJinoellor of the Now York University, informed the -writer that 
his Grst extemporary expositions of the Scriptures, while he was yet a theological student, were made in 
Katy's Sunday-school, in the Murray Street Church. 

2. The accompanying portrait is from a daguerreotype taken in 1850, at the instance of Lewis Tappan, 
EoQ., of New York, and now in the possession of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, of Brooklyn. 



406 BENJAMIN BANNEKER. 



BENJAMIN BANNKKER. 

THE germ of genius is often hidden in very common mold, and springs up 
into glorious efflorescence, at a time, and in a place, least expected by the 
common observer. The African race, so inferior in condition everywhere, 
seldom presents the world with any thing startling in the way of intellect- 
ual achievements. This is the rule, while the exceptions are sometimes very 
remarkable. Of these exceptions, there are few characters more prominent 
than that of Benjamin Banneker, of Maryland, the descendant from a fair-com- 
plexioned English woman, and a native of Africa. His grandmother came 
from England, purchased a small plantation in Maryland, and also twt) negro 
slaves fi'om a ship just from Africa. She finally liberated and married one 
of them. Her daughter, Benjamin's mother, married an African, Avho assumed 
her surname. Benjamin was their only son, and he was born on the 9th of 
November, 1731. His grandmother taught him to read, and instiucted him in 
religious things. He became fond of books, and devoted much of the time 
which he could spare from farm labors to studies of various kinds. At matur- 
ity he was possessed of a farm left by his father, and he cultivated it wath care 
and thrift. Arithmetic, and mathematics in general, were his delight, and ex- 
traordinary mechanical abilities were early displayed by him in the con- 
struction of a wooden clock. This instrument was long a wonder among the 
settlers upon the banks of the Patapsco river, wdiere Banneker resided. 

When, in l'?73, Ellicott & Co. built their mills in that deep valley, crossed by 
the railway from Baltimore to Washington, Banneker was an earnest spectator 
of the process, not only of construction, but of continued operation. At about 
that time he had become noted for expertness in the solution of mathematical 
problems, and scholars in diflferent parts of the country frequently sent him ques- 
tions to test his capacity. The answers were always correct, and sometimes 
he would propose questions in return, expressed in verse. On the suggestion 
of George Ellicott, who appreciated his genius, Banneker made astronomical 
calculations for almanacs; and, in the spring of 1789, he accurately calculated 
an eclipse. He was now almost sixty years of age, and, though industrious 
with his hands, he panted for leisure to pursue scientific studies. He finally 
disposed of his little farm for a competent annuity, and lived alone. Wrapped 
in his cloak, he lay many a night upon his back on the bare earth, in contem- 
plation of the heavenly bodies. In 1790 he was employed, by commissioners, to 
assist them in surveying the lines of the District of Columbia, then called the 
Federal Territory. This was the only time that he was ever for from his 
little dwelling ; and, on his return, speaking of the good treatment he had re- 
ceived, he said, " I feared to trust myself, even with wine, lest it should steal 
away the little sense I have." 

Banneker's first almanac was published in 1792. He sent a copy of it, in his 
own hand-writing, to Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State. It excited 
the warmest approbation of Jefferson, who wrote him a noble letter in reply, 
assuring him that he had sent the almanac to M. Condorcet, Secretary of the 
Academy of Sciences at Paris. There it commanded universal admiration, and 
the " African x^stronomer" became well known in the scientific circles of Eu- 
rope. He kept a common-place book, in which he recorded the events of his 
daily life. That book is preserved, and in it is the memorandum, " Sold on the 
2d of April, 1795, to Butler, Edwards, and Kiddy, the right of an almanac for 
the year 1796, for the sum of eighty dollars, equal to £30." His last recorded 
astronomical observations appear under date of the month of January, 1804, 
Banneker died in October, ISOO, a^ed seventj'-five years. It was a brilliant 



JOHN W. FRANCIS, JR. 407 

day, when, liaving been upon tlio neighboring hills, for fresh air, lie returned 
to his cottage, complained of feeling ill, and, lying down, soon afterwad ex- 
pired, at the age of about seventy-three years. The following question, sub 
nutted by Banneker to George Ellicott, will give the reader some idea of lii3 
poetic, as well as mathematical talent : 

*' A Cooper and Vintner sat down for to talk, 
Both being so groggy lliat neither could walk ; 
Says Cooper to Vintner, ' I'm the first of my trade. 
There 's no kind of vessel but what I have made, 
And of anyshape, sir,— just what you will, 
And of any size, sir, — from a tun to a gill !' 
' Then,' said the Vintner, 'you're the man for me — 
Make me a vessel if we can agree. 
The top and the bottom's diameter define. 
To bear that proportion as fifteen to nine ; 
Thirty-five inches arc just what I crave, 
No more and no less, in the dcptli will I have; 
Just thirty-nine gallons this vessel must hold, — 
Then I will reward you with silver or gold — 
Give me your promise, my honest old friend?' 
' I'jl make it to-morrow, that you may depend !' 
So the next day the Cooper, his work to discharge. 
Soon made the new vessel, but made it too large; 
He took out some staves, which made it too small, 
And then cursed the vessel, the Vintner and all. 
He beat on his b east — ' By the Powers !' he swore. 
He never would work at his trade any more. 
Now, ray worthy friend, find out. if you can. 
The vessel's dimensions, and comfort the man." 

*' Benjauin Banneker." 



JOHN W. FRANCIS, JR. 

1' N" the roseate petal bursting from the calyx in Spring-time, we see sure 
promises of the fruit of Autumn ; and if the frost or tlie canker withers it, 
we mourn as reasonably as when the frost or the canker blights at full fruition. 
So with the soul in its calyx of humanity. In its budding promises, 

" Ere fame ordained or genius had achieved," 

we often behold greatness, and goodness, and all else that ennobles man, bene- 
fits the world, and bono s the Creator, as clearly manifested as in the fruit of 
full consummation. When one, like our young friend cf whom we write, is 
taken from among men, at the full bursiiog of the buds of promise which pro- 
phesy of a brilliant and useful career, society is bereaved, indeed, for it is 
denied the benefits of great achievements. 

John W. Francis, jr, was the eldest son of Dr. John "W. Francis, the well- 
known, well-beloved, and eminent physician and scholar. He was born in the 
city of New York, on the 5th of July, 1832. From the dawn of life he lived in 
the midst of intellectual influences of the highest and purest kind. His father's 
house was the welcome resort of men distinguished in science, art, and litera- 
ture; and in the domestic circle his heart and mind were thg daily and hourly 
recipients of the noblest culture. His wise father watched his physical de- 
velopment with great care, and he grew to manhood with robust health. With 
such preparations he entered upon the tasks and pleasures of the school-room. 
He sought knowledge with a miser's gi'eed, but not with a miser's sordid aim ; 
for, like his father, he delighted as much in distributing as in gathering. Hab- 
ituated from infancy to the society of the mature, he was always manly beyond 
his years. His love of reading, and his free personal intercourse with the dis- 



408 



JOHN W. FRANCIS, JR. 




/_y/^^Z^<^eyL^ 




tuiguished associates and visitors of his father, intensified his thirst for knowl- 
edge, and made its acquisition easy. He was an ardent lover of nature, and to 
him the sea-shore seemed hke the presence of God. When, in 1848, he entered 
Columbia College as a student, he was remarkable for general information. 
He was already familiar with the works and thoughts of the best English 
writers, and was an adept in the critic's difficult art. His collegiate course was 
in the highest degree honorable, and he completed it with a thoroughness of 
discipline and culture, possessed by few. He was the favorite of his class- 
mates, as well as his tutors, and to all he was known by the name of " the 
young doctor." He had become proficient in the classics and other regular 
studies in the usual course, and wrote and spoke fluently several modern 
languages. " He had," said his favorite preceptor, " the soul of a classical 
scholar." Humor was a marked trait in his character, a^^^ 't had a beneficent 



THEODORIC ROMEYN BECK. 409 

effect upon his too earnest intellect. Fully equipped for the great battle of 
life, he chose the medical profession as his chief tJieater of action. He was led 
to it by his preference, and by intense filial devotion ; for he loved his father as 
Buch a father deserves to be loved, and earnestly desired to relieve that good 
man's professional toil. He made thorough preparations for the duties he was 
about to assume, by attendance upon medical lectures, and extensive practical 
study in the Hospital. There he assumed duties of great responsibility. He 
took special delight in treating poor patients, for whom he always had the balm 
of kind words, and often relieved their immediate necessities by contributions 
from his own purse.^ Thus, in intense study and important practice, he was 
preparing for the reception of his degree and diploma as a physician, with all 
th 3 ze il of an ardent worshiper. The labor was too great for even his strong 
mind and vigorous body. Both were overwrought, and he fell in the harness. 
A typhoid fever bore him rapidly to the grave. On the 20th of January, 
1855, his spirit returned to the bosom of its Creator, while the stricken 
parents — 

"Two— whose gray hairs with daily joy he crowned," 

mourned in the midst of sympathizing friends, but not as those without hope. 
His body was followed to the temple and the tomb by many of the most dis- 
tinguished citizens of New York; his class-mates of Columbia College and of 
the University Medical School ; and by almost every member of the New York 
Academy of Medicine. The press testified its sense of iho pubhc loss by his 
departure ; his associates gathered and expressed their approbation of his 
worth, by appropriate resolutions ; distinguished friends from various parts of 
the Union, sen' letters of tender condolence to his parents ; a beautiful com- 
memorative poem flowed from the graceful pen of his friend, Henry T. Tucker- 
man ; and our Lyric Poet, George P. Morris, wrote for his epitaph — 

" The pulse-beat of true hearts I 
The love-light of fond eyes 1 
When such a man departs, 
'Tis the survivor dies." 

Few young men are endowed with such intellectual beauty of face as was 
young Francis. While yet a child. Miss Hall painted a miniature of him. The 
publisher of the Magnolia had it engraved as " Oberon;" and the editor, one of 
our most honored literary men, " declared of this ideal of infant strength and 
loveliness, that he could 

" 'In every speaking feature trace 
A brilliant debliny.' " 



THEODORIC ROMKYN BECK. 

AS a model of industry and disinterestedness, T. Romeyn Beck, M.D., LL.D., 
appears prominent among the truly great men of our day. " He never 
lost a minute," says his friend, co-laborer and pastor, ^ "and we all know how 

1. Mr. Tuckerman, who has since prepared an admirable Memoir of young Francis, mentions the case 
of an old lame beggar, who for years had daily taken his station in fiont of the New York Hospital So 
constant was young Francis's kindness to this poor fellow, that the mendicant watched regularly for his 
benefactor ; and when he was so far off as net to be recognized by less devoted eyes, he took oli his hat 
to welcome " Master Francis," as he called him even when grown to young manhood. 

2. Rev. Dr. Campbell of Albany. 



410 THEODORIC ROMEYN BECK. 

much he accomplished; yet he never appeared, in any thing he did, to be seek- 
ing to acquire position or honor for himself. JSe was a remarkably pure-mind- 
ed man — of true honor, above all meanness, and of the sternest integrity." 

Dr. Beck was born at Schenectady, in the State of New York, on the 11th 
of August, 1791. He was of English and Dutch descent, and inherited the 
virtues of both. At an early age he was left to the care of a widowed mother, 
who had four other sons in charge. After attending tlie Common Schools of 
his native town, he entered Union College, in Schenectady, as a student, in 
1803. He was graduated at the age of sixteen years, and at once commenced 
the study of medicine in the city of Albany. Ilis professional education was 
completed in New York, under the eminent Dr. David Hosack. On the occa- 
sion of receiving his degree, as Doctor of Medicine, in 1811, the subject of his 
inaugural thesis was "Insanity," atopic which, in after hfe, occupied much 
of his attention. He commenced the practice of medicine and surgery, in 
Albany, and the same year lie was appointed physician to the Almshouse. In 
1812 he became a member of "The Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts," 
at the head of which was Chancelor Livingston. At the second meeting after 
his election he was made chairman of a committee appointed for " the purpose 
of collecting and arranging such minerals as our State affords;" and less than 
two months after his admission, when in the twenty-first year of his age, he 
was appointed to deliver the annual address at the following meeting of the 
Society. From that period he was an active promoter of agriculture and 
manufactures, and a great portion of his useful life was spent in their advance- 
ment. In 1815 Dr. Beck received the appointment of Professor of the Insti- 
tutes of Medicine, and of lecturer on Medical Jurisprudence in the newly es- 
tablished C( '3ge of Phj^sicians and Surgeons at Fairfield, in Herkimer County. 
He withdrew from the practice of medicine in 1817, when he was appointed 
Principal of the Albany Academy. The sufferings lie was compelled to witness 
had a powerful effect upon his sensitive organization, and he left the practice 
willingly, while he always delighted in the study of the healing art. From 
that time he became devoted to Science and Literature, and in those fields he 
always sustained an exalted position. 

In 1823, Dr. Beck was elected vice-president of the Albany Lyceum of 
Natural History ; and the same year he published his popular work, in two 
volumes, on the Elements of Medical Jurisprudence. This production attracted 
great attention, and gave the author substantial fame. Dr. John W. Francis, 
who was long Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University of the State 
of New York, speaking of this work, remarks, " I have various editions, in 
various languages, which the foreign press has issued for enlightened Europe. 
This, of itself, is eulogium enough concerning this work." He then forcibly 
adds, " The thought has sometimes crossed my mind of the peculiar circum- 
stances, that the Empire State, which was so long rendered famous by the 
high decisions of the great Chancelor Kent and Chief Justice Spencer, should 
cotemporaneously have had its renown in legal authority still further aug- 
mented by the elaborate work on Medical Jurisprudence, with which the 
name of Professor Beck will ever be identified." ^ 

In 1829, Dr. Beck was elected president of the Medical Society of the State 
of New York; and, in 1836, he was appointed Professor of Materia Medica in 
the College at Fairfield, which position he held until the final closing of tlie in- 
stitution in 1840, when he was elected to the same chair in the Albany Medical 
College. That professorship he held until 1854, when declining health caused 
him to resign it. From 1841, until his death, he occupied the important posi' 

1. Anniversary Discourse before the New York Academy of Medicine, 1847. 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 411 

tion of Secrr tary of tlie Board of Reg-ents of IheState of New York. la Fel)- 
ruary, 1855, Dr. Beck became seriously ill, and from that time he gradually 
wasted away, until the 19th of November following, when the spirit of this 
great and good man departed for its home. His death was a public calamity, 
and was mourned as such by those numerous societies of which he was a 
member,^ as Avell as by all who appreciated private worth and eminent public 
services. The papers from his pen, read before various societies, and his con- 
tributions to the scientific periodicals of his day, form remarkable and most 
valuable gifts to the common fund of American literature. The time is near 
when Dr. Beck will be regarded as one of the noblest, wisest, and best of the 
son's of the State of New York. 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 

^PHE wise man in Holy Writ said, " Seestthou a man diligent in his business? 
1 he shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand before mean men." Nobly 
was this assertion vindicated in the life of Abbott Lawrence, one of the " mer- 
chant princes" of New England, and a pliilanthropist of truest stamp. He was 
a practically useful man, and while, in business operations, he helped himself, 
he was continually helping others. Mr. Lawrence could trace his pedigree 
back to the reign of Richard Coeur de Lion, toward the close of the twelfth 
century ; and he was lineally descended from Sir Robert Lawrence of that 
period, whose family, in subsequent years, intermarried with the noble family 
of Washington. Abbott Lawrence was born at Groton, Massachusetts, on the 
16th of December, 1792, and received his education at the local school in the 
place of his nativity. At the age of sixteen years young Lawrence entered tlie 
store of his brother Amos, in Boston, as clerk. He took with him his bundle 
under his arm, with less than three dollars in his pocket, and these composed 
his whole fortune. After five years of faithful service, his brother took him into 
partnership. Soon the business horizon was clouded by the gathering storm 
of war between the United States and England, and Abbott became a bank- 
rupt. He applied to tlie \Vc,v Department for a commission in the army, but 
before his application was acted upon, j)eace was proclaimed. Willi the gener- 
ous aid of his brother Amos, the two commenced business again, after the war, 
and Abbott went to England to purchase goods, and forward them to Boston. 
I'urough his skill, industry, and prudence, he greatly benefited the firm, and 
they were rewarded by large profits. He made several other voyages to En- 
gland on business errands: and when in the 27th year of his age [June 28, 
1819], he was married to the eldest daughter of Timothy Bigelow, an eminent 
lawyer in Boston. At about this time his mind was much occupied with the 
subject of domestic manufactures, and with uncommon foresight, Amos and 
Abbott Lawrence ceased importing British goods, and employed their energies 
and capital in the establishment of home manufactures. They associated them- 
selves with the Lowells and others ; and the most ennoblin2,' monuments in com- 
memoration of these men of business, are the great manufacturing towns of 
Lowell and Lawrence. 

From the period of the establishment of cotton manufactures, that subject 
occupied much of the thought and labors of Abbott Lawrence; and in 1827, 



1. Dr. Beck was an lionorary member of no less than twenty-one learned societies, ?t home and 
abroad, aiid was a member of many others. He was also presented with the honorary degi ee of liL.D. 
by two colleges. 



412 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 




y^^^^'^^^^ 



^^^L^/>^^^ 



he was a delegate in a convention held at Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, whose 
memorial to Cougress resulted in the tariff act of 1828, that so aroused the 
violent opposition of the cotton-producing States. In 1834 Mr. Lawrence was 
elected a member of the Federal House of Representatives, and served on the 
important Committee of Ways and Means. Having no desire for oflBcial station, 
other than a wilUngness to serve the public when absolutely necessary, he de- 
clined a re-election; but, four years later, he yielded to tlie importunities of 
fi-'ends, and was again sent to Congress. At Washington city he suffered long 
sickness from fever, and was compelled to resign his seat, and return home. 
Vhore he was efficient in quieting the public feeling aroused by the suspension 
of specie payments by the banks. In his judgment the people had implicit 
confidence ; and Daniel Webster showed great sagacity when he suggested Mr, 
Lawrence as the proper person to negotiate with the British Commissioner 
upon the settlement of the JSTorth-eastern boundary question. 

In 1843, Mr. Lawrence, with his family, embarked for England, in quest of 
health. The vessel in which they departed was wrecked, but Mr. Lawrence 
and his family arrived safely at Halif;^x, and from there continued their voyage. 
President Taylor afterward invited him to a seat in his cabinet, but he declined 
the honor. Then the mission to England was offered him, and this he ac- 



JAMES G. PERCIVAL. 413 



cepted. The duties of the station he performed witl\ great credit to himself, 
and the honor of his country. After three years' service as a diplomat, he 
resigned, and returned home, followed by the warmest expressions of regard 
from the best men of P]ngland. At the funeral of Daniel Webster he met 
several of his Boston friends, for the first time, after his return, and this solemn 
occasion prevented his acceptance of a public dinner, tendered to him. This 
truly great and good man (for he was a Christian philanthropist) ^ died on the 
18th of August, 1855, at the age of almost sixty-three years. On that occasion 
it may be truly said, that Boston was in mourning. Many closed their places 
of business; the bells of the churches were tolled; the military companies 
were out on solemn parade ; the flags of ships were placed at half-mast, and 
minute guns were fired. So passed away one of the merchant princes of New 
England. 



JAMES a, PERCIVAL.. 

" Tlie world is full of Poetry— the air 
Is living with its spirit ; and the waves 
Dance to the music of its melodies, 
And sparkle in its brightness— earth is veiled, 
And mantled with its beauty ; and the walls, 
That close the Universe, wilh crystal, in, 
Are eloquent with voices, that proclaim 
The unseen glories of immensity. 
In harmonies, too perfect, and too high 
For ought but beings of celestial mold, 
And speak to man, in one eternal hymn. 
Unfading beauty, and unyielding power." 

THUS, in his happier years, warbled one of our sweet poets, James Gates 
Percival, but who, in the vale of elder manhood, was frequently so over- 
shadowed by a cloud of melancholy, that he could not discern that upper air 
which was " living with the Spirit" of Poetry, and glorious promises. He was 
born in Kensington, Connecticut, on the 15lh of September, 1795. His father 
was an eminent physician in that town, and died while his three sons w^ere 
quite young, leaving all of them to the care of an excellent mother. James 
was a precocious child, and with the first dawnings of his genius in infantile 
years, he gave promises of a brilliant future. He accomplished his academic 
course of study in brief time, entered Yale College, at the age of sixteen years, 
and was at the head of his class in 1815, when his tragedy of Zamor formed 
part of the commencement exercises. Previous to this he had written fugitive 
pieces of poetry of considerable merit. Even as early as his fourteenth year, 
he wrote a satire in verse, that commanded much attention. In 1820 his first 
volume of poems was published. It contained the first part of Prometheus, a 
poem in the Spenserian stanza, and was received with favor. He was ad- 
mitted to the practice of medicine the same year, and went to Charleston, South 
Carolina, to enter upon the duties of that profession. He found literature far 
more alluring, and yielded to its temptations. There, in 1822, he published 

1. Mr. Tiawrence gave freely of his wealth for religious and charitable pui-poses. Tie gave fifty thou- 
sand dollars for the establishment of a scientific school in connection with Harvard College ; and when 
it was in operation, he gave an additional sum of fifty thousand dollars for its use in the way of endow- 
ments of professorships, etc. He also bequeathed, in his will, fifty thousand dollars for the establish- 
ment of model houses for the poor in Boston. For charitable purposes he left, in all, one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars, of which the Public Library of Boston received ten thousand. His brother Amos 
■was still more remarkable for his liberal benefactions. He died in December, 1852, at the age of sixty 
years. It was found, on an examination of his papers, that during his life he had given away about 
seven hundred thousand dollars ! He was blessed with wealth, and he gladly shared with the needy. 



414 JOHN C. SPENCER. 



the first number of Clio, from which the above epigraph was taken. It was a 
pamplilet of a hundred pages, in prose and verse. Another number, entirely 
in verse, appeared soon afterward. 

In 1824, Dr. Percival was appointed assistant surgeon in the United /States 
army, and Professor of Chemistry at the Military Academy at West Point. In 
the course of a few months he resigned his situation there, and became con- 
nected, as surgeon, with the recruiting- service at Boston. In 1827, he pub- 
lislied the third part of Clio, in New York ; and about that time lie was en- 
gaged in assisting Dr. Webster in the preparation of the first quarto edition of 
his great Dictionary. He then translated and edited Malto Brun's Geography, 
the publication of which was completed in three quarto volumes, in 1843. 
Pond of nature, he investigated her secrets and her beauties with great zeal, 
and became a skillful geologist. On account of his extensive knowledge of the 
sciences, he was appointed in 1835, in conjunction with Professor Shepard, to 
make a survey of the Mineralogy and Geology of Connecticut ; and in 1842 he 
published a report on the subject, embraced in nearly five hundred pages. In 
the summer of 1854 he was commissioned State Geologist of Wisconsin, and 
entered upon the work at once. His first annual report, in a volume of one 
hundred octavo pages, was published at Madison, Wisconsin, early in 1855.' At 
the tiriie of his death, on the second day of May, of that year, he held the oflice 
of State Geologist of Illinois. 

_ Dr. Percival was a man of scholarly tastes and habits, quite eccentric at 
times, and frequently misanthropic. He was excessively fond of literature and 
science ; and, as a linguistic scholar, he had few superiors. " As a specimen 
of his readiness," says Duyckinck,"' ^ "it may be mentioned, that when Ole 
Bull was in New Haven, in 1844 or 1845, he addressed to him a poem of four 
or five stanzas in the Danish language." The following is one of the stanzas, 
with the translation, as given by Duyckinck — 

" Norge, dit Svoerd bier en Lire : 
Himmelen fruv hendes Toner, 
Hiertet og Sielen at alyre, 
Fuld som a£ Kummerens Moner." 

Translation — " Norway, thy Sword has become a Lyre — Heaven gave its 
tones, to lead heart and soul, filled as with grief's longings." 

Dr. Percival died at Hazelgreen, Illinois, when at the age of almost sixty 
years. 



JOHN C. SPENCER. 

^FHE Revised Statutes of the State of New York bear evidence of the learning, 
1 talent, acumen, and industry of John C. Spencer, one of the most honored 
sons of the State of New York. He was the son of Chief Justice Ambrose 
Spencer, and was born at Hudson, New York, on the 8th of January, 1788. 
He was educated chiefly at Union College, Schenectady, and was admitted to 
the bar, as a practising lawyer, in 1809, at Canandaigua, where he resided 
until 1845. At the age of nineteen years he became connected with public 
affairs, as Secretary to Governor Daniel D. Tompkins, He held various offices, 
connected with his profession, during the war of 1812-15, and in the latter 

1. Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol II., p. 213. 2. See page 93. 



ROBERT L. STEVENS. 415 

yea.r he was appointed Assistant Attorney General for the western part of 
New York. He was elected to Congress in 1816, and as chairman of a com- 
mittee of that body, he drew up a report concerning the aflairs of the United 
States Bank. 

In 1820, Mr. Spencer was elected to the New York Assembly, and was 
chosen speaker. In 1824 he was elected to the State Senate, where he served 
four years. He joined the Anti-masonic party, and was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Yan Buren, special Attorney-General, under the law passed for that pur- 
pose, to prosecute the persons connected with the alleged abducition of Morgan. 
He was again elected to the Assembly in 1832; and in 1839 iio wns chosen 
Secretary of State, and became, ex-officio, Superintendent of Common Schools. 
In that office lie rendered important pubhc service, by perfecting the Common 
School System of the State of New York. In 1841 he was appointed one of the 
Regents of the University; and the same year President Tyler called him to his 
cabinet as Secretary of War. He was made Secretary of the Treasury in 1843, 
but resigned that office the following year, chiefly because of his opposition to 
the admission of Texas. 

Eminent as was Mr. Spencer in every field of labor upon which he entered, 
his chief fame will ever rest upon his services in revising the Statutes of tiie 
State of New York, and his published essays upon that subject, explaining the 
purposes of the Statutes. So perfect was the confidence in his ability, that he 
was selected so revise the whole body of the Law of his native State, but he 
declined the task, on account of his age and growing infirmities. He died at 
Albany, his residence from the year 1845, on the 18th of May, 1855, at the age 
of sixty-seven years. 



ROBERT L . STEVENS. 

H'^HB history of successful steam navigation forms a wonderful chapter in the 
1 record of inventions and human progress; and the first, as well as the 
greatest achievements by its means, have been won by Americans. Next to 
the name of Fulton, as one of the pioneers in the progress of this great in- 
dustrial agent, stands the name of Stevens, father and son, of Hoboken, New 
Jersey The father was John Stevens, a man of inventive genius, and owner 
of the territory now known as Hoboken, opposite New Yoik city. He was 
engaged with John Fitch- in some of his experiments in steam navigation; 
and thus, in earliest life, his son, Robert L. (wlio was born at Hoboken in 1788), 
became familiar with the subject. The inventive and mechanical abilities of 
Robert wei'e early developed ; and several years before Fulton made the first 
exhibition of his steam- boat, he and his father had succeeded in propelling a 
small paddle-wheel vessel, by steam, upon a broad ditch near Hoboken. This 
little craft they named the jWary Ann. They also built a screw-propeller at 
Hoboken, similar in form and principle to that of Captain Ericsson's of our day. 
The greater portion of Robert L. Stevens's life was spent in business con- 
nected with steam navigation,' and many of the most useful inventions pertain- 
ing thereto are the productions of his genius. He was the first to discover a 
method for saving the power lost in the working of machinery by steam. The 
remedy which he first applied was the contrivance known as the Eccentric 
Wheel. Subsequently he produced a better invention for that purpose known 
as the Patent Steam Cut Off, which was long in general use, but whicli has 
since been superseded by improvements upon his valuable hints. He was the 



416 ROBERT L. STEVENS. 

first to devise a plan for passing the exhaust steam from bow to stern, under 
flat-bottomed boats, by which tiiey may be raised some six inclies, thereby 
allowing them greater speed, and adapting them, in a peculiar manner, to 
shallow water. Mr. Stevens v.^as also the lirst to use steam in propelling 
ferry-boats, it liaving been applied to a boat on the Barclay-street ferry, as 
early as 1817. 

Soon after the war of 1812, Mr. Stevens invented a bomb, but declined ap- 
plying for a patent. The government, perceiving its value, secured a right 1o 
its exclusive use, by granting Mr. Stevens an annuity equivalent to five dollars 
a day during his life. When railways and locomotives came into use in 1828, 
the subject ''instantly attracted the earnest attention of Mr. Stevens. Several 
of the best of the earlier machines in use in this country were invented by 
him, and many of the improvements now used arc of his suggestion. 

Several years ago Mr Stevens's attention was turned to tlie art of gunnery, 
and for nearly twelve months he experimented, near Hoboken, for the purpose 
of testing the powers of a cannon-shot upon plates of iron. He erected a tar- 
get, upon whicli he fastened iron plates of different thicknesses, in compact 
order, and fired balls against them. He then fixed plates of the same thickness, 
a little distance apart, and found the latter mode much the best for resisting 
the balls. By that arrangement, the force of the heaviest shot might be broken 
and spent, without perforating more than four or five of such plates. When 
satisfied with his experiments, he called the attention of our government to 
them, and proposed the erection of an immense floating battery, with such 
guards, to be ball and bomb-proof, for the defense of the harbor of New York. 
The government authorized him to construct one, and he was busily engaged 
upon it at the time of his death. It is to be seven hundred feet in length, of six 
thousand tons' burden, to be propelled by engines, without masts, to bear tliirty 
heavy guns upon each side, and four Paixhan guns upon its deck, and to be 
so constructed that its ends, being driven into an ordinary ship, would cut it 
in two. It is intended to have this monster of destruction irxored in the 
harbor of New York, midway between the Battery and the Narrows. The 
work upon it is carried on in secret, within an inclosure. Already more than a 
million and a quarter of dollars have been spent on it, and yet it is not completed. 

Mr. Stevens was actively engaged in business until a month before his death, 
wliich occurred at his residence, at River Terrace, Hoboken, on Sunday morning, 
the 20th of April, 1865, when he was about sixty-eight years of age. 



AT the close of the Indian Summer in 1859, the writer dined at "Sunnyside," 
on the Hudson, at the table of Washington Irving. He was then suffering 
from difficult breathing, which was an exception to his usual good health and 
spirits. A fortnight afterwards the mortal remains of the master of " Sunnyside " 
was laid by the side of those of his mother, in the burial-ground on the borders 
of that " Sleepy Hollow " so immortalized in Irving's legendary story. 

That sweetest of Jmmorists and story-tellers was born in the city of New York, 
on the 3d of April, 1783. His father was a descendant of one of the oldest fami- 
lies of the Orkney Islands, who had emigrated to America about twenty years 
before. Books were favorites in his family; and at an early age Washington 
delighted in reading the poems of Chaucer and Spenser. Out of their wells of 
wisdom, fancy and imagination he drew much of the inspiration which served 
him and his generation so nobly afterward. Fond of novelty, he was in the 



WASHINGTON IRVING. 



417 




habit while yet a little child, of strolling alone out or town to observe the varied 
aspects of nature, and to wander along the wharves or into tlie bye-places of the 
city, studying the peculiarities of men. In this habit may be found the germ of 
many of his literar}'" productions. 

At thf) age of sixteen years young Irving left the common school in whicli Iv- 
had been educated, and began the study of law. He loved literature better, and 
at nineteen he began to write for the " Morning Chronicle," edited by his older 
brother, Peter, over the signature of '• Jonathan Old Style." A little later (1804) 
his health friled and he went to the South of Europe to seek its recover3^ He 
loitered along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and among its islands, for 
several months; and in the Spring of 1805, he found himself in Rome, where ho 
met Washington Allston^ and resolved to become a painter. He soon changed liis 
mind, and wandering through Italy, Switzerland, France, a part of Germany, and 
Holland, he reached London after an absence from home of eighteen months. 

Mr. Irving returned to New York in March, 1806, and resumed his law studies. 
He was soon admitted to the bar, but sooner left it for literary pursuits. Witli 
his brother, William, and James K. Paulding, he produced a series of periodical 
publications entitled " Salmagundi : or the Whim Whams and Opinions of Launce- 
lot Langstaff and Others." They were full of satire, wit and good humor, and 
made a great local sensation. Not long afterward appeared the inimitable bur- 
lesque •• History of New York," by Diedrich Knickerbocker, which attracted atten- 
tion at home and abroad. 

1. See pnge 262. 

27 



418 FKANCIS AVAYLAND- 



Mr. Irving now engaged with two of his brothers, in mercantile pursuits, ne 
being a silent partner and left free to spend»liis time as he pleased. He edited 
the '• Analectie Magazine" duringthe War of 1812, andwrote for it many charming- 
biographies of naval heroes. For awhile he was on the staff of Governor Tomp- 
kins. At the close of the war he revisited England, and while there a commer- 
cial revulsion swept away his business house and reduced him to poverty. He 
turned to literature for a subsistence. Mr. (afterward Sir Walter) Scott was his 
friend in need. "The Sketch Book " laid the foundation of his fame and fortune; 
and during seventeen years that he remained abroad, he wrote a large portion 
of his books. 

In 1829, Louis M'Lane, American Minister at the British Court, chose him to 
be his Secretary of Legation. In 1831, the University of Oxford conferred upon 
him the degree of LL. D. ; and in May, 1832, he returrsd to his native countrv. 
Ten years afterward he was appointed Mini.ster to Spain, wliich position he filled 
for four years. Soon after he returned home (1848-50,) Mr. Putnam published 
a revised edition of his works in fifteen volumes. Meanwhile he had resumed 
labor upon a "Life of Washington," which he had begun several j^ears before, and 
laid aside. It was finished in five volumes, early in 1859. Th's was his longest, 
most laborious, and last work. He had sutfered from unsuspected disease of the 
heart for some time. He supposed his difticult breathing, at times, to be the 
effect of some other cause. "1 am suffering," he said in a letter to the writer, a 
few months before his death, "from a nervous affection, caused by asthma." A 
sudden paroxysm of his disease terminated his life soon after he had retired to 
his room on the night of the 28th of November, 1859. A more gentle human 
spirit never inhabited the form of man. Every body loved him. For more than 
a year after his burial, the hands of his foir neighbors laid fresh flowers, every 
morning, upon his modest grave, at whose head is a small white slab bearing 
only the words — Washington Irving. 



AMOJ^TG the enlightened and progressive educators of our time, the name of 
Francis Wayland appears conspicuous; and his successful presidency over 
an important seminary of learning for the space of thirty years, marks him as a 
man of eminence. He was born in the city of New York, on the 11th of March, 
1796. His father was a popular Baptist clergyman, a native ot England. He 
was settled as pastor of a Baptist congregation, in Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, 
and afterward at Saratoga Springs. At Poughkeepsie Francis commenced his 
academic studies under Daniel A. Barnes, and at the age ot seventeen ^^ears, he 
was graduated at Union College with honor. In that institution he was noted 
for his love of metaphysical and economic studies. 

Young Wayland prepared himself for the practice of medicine, in the office of 
Eli Burritt, in Troy, New York; but he was drawn from that vocation by a con- 
viction that it was his duty to engage in the work of the Christian ministry. 
He spent a year at Andover, and then entered Union College as a tutor, while 
pursuing his theological studies, and others connected Avith literature and science. 

In 1821, Mr. Wayland was ordained pastor of the first Baptist church in 
Boston. He left that pulpit in 1826, to take the chair of Professor of Matlie- 
matics and Natural Philosophy in LTnion College. He was soon called from that 
post to preside over Brown University, at Providence, Rhode Island, into which 
important office he was installed in February, 1827. That institution was then 
in a low condition. He soon brought order out of the comparative chaos in 



GEORGE P. MORRIS. 419 



which he found it, and for several years the instruction and disciphne of the 
school were entirely in his hands. He managed both with great ability. Ho 
obtained a liberal endowment for the college, yet it did not flourish. He was 
satisfied that its stagnation was owing chietl}^ to the vicious system of college 
education which Americans had borrowed from tlie English, and made worse. 
Ho iuvesLigdted the subject closely, and gave his views in a little work entitled 
''Thoughts on the College S.ystem of tlie United States." He finally consented to 
remain President of the University on condition that the institution should be 
reorganized upon a plan he had proposed, and be liberally endowed. The cliange 
was agreed upon, and in the course of four months, an endowment fund of 
$125,000 was raised by subscription. After settling the University upon a solid 
foundation, under the new S3^stem which was inaugurated in 1850-51, and seeing 
its catalogue of students and its usefulness constantly increasing, he resigned the 
presidency of it on account of impaired health. That act took place in August, 
1855. From that time until his death at Providence, Rhode Island, on the 26th 
of September, 1865, lie was engaged in literary pursuits, and in a multitude of 
services for the good of his fellow men. 

President Wayland was honored by Harvard University with the degree of 
LL. D. in recognition of his servici'S as instructor, orally and by writings. His 
"Elements of Moral Science," " Elements of Political Economy," and "Elements 
of Intellectual Philosophy," have maintained their position as text-books. 
Besides these, he published several volumes, comprising letters and discourses 
on moral and rehgious subjects, memoirs, etc. Hs was greatly beloved by all; 
and he was so popular in Rhode Island that he might have received any official 
honors in the gift of the people, had he consented to accept them. 



GrEO. F. nVIORRIS. 

THE most genuine lyric poet who has yet honored American literature, was 
George P. Morris. His songs are almost as familiar to American and 
English households as the music of birds, and they are ever welcome guests, for 
they are chaste in language and sentiment. They are magnetic because of their 
sympathy with the finer feelings of human nature. The author's genial humor, 
and kindliness of heart were ever manifest in his writings; and these qualities 
gave him hosts of friends even among those who never looked upon his rucldy 
face and sparkling black eyes. 

George P. Morris was a native of Philadelphia, where he was born on the 10th 
of October, 1802. He became a resident of New York city when a small child; 
and at the age of fifteen years he commenced his literary life by writing verses 
for the "New York Gazette " and " American " newspapers. In the Summer of 
182.S he formed a partnership with Samuel Woodworth, a brother poet, in the 
publication of a quarto literary periodical, called "The New York Mirror," which 
was the first of its class, and was exceedingly popular during a career of nineteen 
years. It was discontinued at the close of 1842. The "Mirror" was the chosen 
veliicle of some of their best communications with the public, by Bryant, Halleck, 
Paulding, Leggett, Fay, Hoffman, Willis, and others of lesser note. The latter 
was associated with Morris in 1843, in the publication of the "New Mirror." 
This was superseded in 1844 by the " Evening Mirror." These publications were 
not very successful, and in 1845, Morris commenced publishing, alone, a paper 
called the " National Press." That title was soon changed to that of " Home Jour- 
nal." "Willis joined Morris in the publication of this paper, and it became very 



420 EDWARD EVERETT. 



popular. Their partnership and warm personal friendship continued until Mor- 
ris's death, which occurred in the city of New York, on tlie 6tli of July, 1864. 

It was not as a journalist that General (he held the office of brigadier) Morris 
won his widest popularity. It was chiefly and most substantially by his songs. 
These were ever souglit after; and Balfe, Sir John Stephenson, Sir Henry Bishop 
and other English composers Avedded them to sweet melodies, when they were 
sung by Malibran, Braham, Russell, Dempster, Anna Bishop and other noted 
vocalists, at public concerts. Millions of copies of "Woodman Spare that Tree" 
were sold ; and other songs, such as " We were Boys together," " My Mother's 
Bible," "Origin ot Yankee Doodle," '-Long Time Ago," were sources of great 
profit to author and publisher, because of their popularity. 

General Morris's poems have been published in volumes at different times. 
He also published a volume of humorous prose, entitled "The Little Frenchman 
and his Water Lots." He published a volume in 1853, entitled "The Deserted 
Bride and other Poems.'' He also produced a drama called " Briercliff," its inci- 
dents drawn from events of the American Revolution. He .also wrote an opera 
entitled "The Maid of Saxon}^," which was set to music by Charles E. Horn. 
He edited a volume of "American Melodies," and he and Willis jointly prepared 
a large volume entitled " The Prose and Poetry of Europe and America." 

On a picturesque plateau at the foot of a precipitous mountain in the Hudson 
Highlands near the village of Cold Spring, was the Summer residence of General 
Morris, which he called " Undercliff." There he ever dispensed an open-handed 
and open-hearted hospitahty to friends and strangers. 



JEllD'WJ^TllD EVERETT. 

AMONG the more eminent scholars and statesmen of our land no one has ever 
been more deservedly honored for intellectual power, purity of character, 
public and private, and for clearness of perception and judgment, than Edward 
Everett. He was born in Dorchester, close by the New England capital, on the 
11th of April, 1794. He entered Harvard College as a student at the age of 
thirteen years ; and when he was a little more than seventeen years old he was 
graduated with the highest honors of his class of uncommonly able students. 
While he was yet an undergraduate, he was the chief conductor of a magazine 
called the " Harvard Lyceum." 

Young Everett remained in the college as a tutor for awhile, and was at the 
same time a divinity student. He entered the ministry (Unitarian) in 1813, in 
the city of Boston, and was eminent from the beginning as a polished pulpit 
orator and logician. In 1814 he was appointed to fill the Eliot chair of Greek 
literature then recently created in Harvard College, but before entering upon his 
duties there, he thoroughly qualified himself by travel and study in Europe for 
about four years. During that time he acquired that solid information concerning 
the history and principles of law, and of the political systems of Europe, which 
formed the foundation of that broad statesmanship for which he w^as distinguished. 

Mr. Everett exalted and commended classical studies by his class instruction, 
and by a series of brilliant lectures on Greek hterature and Ancient Art. At 
about the same time he became the conductor of "The North American Review." 

In the course of a few years, Mr. Everett had so well prepared himself for 
popular oratory, that ever after he entered upon its practice in 1824, he held the 
first rank among American public speakers. His life as a statesman began at 
the same time, for he was, that year, elected to a seat in the National Congress. 
He was a member of that body ten years, and during all that period he was one 



EDWARD EVP:RETT 



421 




of the Oonumttwe on Foreig-n Relations, a part of the time as Chairman, He was 
a laboriouii ituu ajost valuable worker in the public service ; and on nearly every 
occasion ho was chosen by the Standing- or Select Committee of which he was a 
member, to draw up their report. These papers were models in every sense. 
His essays on public affairs, in the form of letters or otherwise, were extensively 
read at home and abroad. 

In 1834, Mr. Everett was chosen Governor of his native State, and was three 
times reelected. In that position as well as in all others, his speeches, prepared 
with great c.:re, were always most perfect of their kind. 

In June, 1840, Mr Everett again visited lllurope, accompanied by his fomily. 
The same year he was appointed resident Minister of his government at the 
British Court. It was an important mission, fur the relations of his country with 
Great Britain then wore a grave aspect. His official career in London was emi- 
nently successful. Pacific relations were preserved and the interests of his 
countrymen were secured. His personal accomplishments made him a favorite 
v.'itii the leading men and families of England; and his departure, in 1843, to 
enter upon a new field of duty as Commissioner to China, was regretted by all. 

On his return from China in 1 845, Mr. Everett was chosen President of Harvard 
University. Ill health compelled him to resign the place at the end of three 
years. On the death of Mr. Webster, in 1852, President Fillmore c^alled Mr. 
Everett to fill the thus vacated position in his Cabinet as Secretary of State. He 
performed tlie arduous and delicate duties of that office, at a trying time, with 
signal ability and success. MeauwiuL; the Legislature of Massachusetts had elected 



•i22 N. p. WILLIS. 



liim to the National Senate, in which he took his seat in Marcli, 1S53. Ill health 
compelled him to resign his seat in the Spring of 1854. Rest restored him. and 
he entered upon the patriotic task of assistiflfe- the Ladies' Mount Vernon Associa- 
tion in raising funds for the purchase of the Home of \Yashington. He deUvered 
a lecture on the character of that great man, more than a hundred times, and 
applied the proceeds to the good pui-pose. His efforts placed over sixty thousand 
dollars in the treasury. He delivered other addresses in aid of benevolent institu- 
tions ; and it is probable that his oratory won lor such purposes at least one 
hundred thousand dollars. 

In 1860, Mr. Everett was nominated for Vice President of the United States 
by the so-called "Union Part}'-," with John liell, of Tennessee, who was nomi^ 
nated for President. The ticket did not succeed. The late Civil AVar broke out, 
and Mr. Everett took strong ground, with great zeal, against the insurgents. 
The last act of his political life was the casting of his vote for Abraham Lincoln 
in 1864, in the Massachusetts P^lectoral College, of which he was a member. 

Mr. Everett's death was very sudden. On the 9th of January, 1865, he spoke 
at Faneuil Hall, in Boston, in favor of sending provisions to the destij;ute inhab- 
itants of Savannah. He was affected by a severe cold for a few days afterward. 
He went to his bed on the evening of the 14th without any apprehensions of 
serious difficulty, but was found in a dying state early tiie next morning. Before 
his physician arrived he was dead. The Secretary of State at Washington (Mr. 
Seward) announced the sad tidings to the people of the United States on the 
same day. 



WHEN", about the year 1822, the late Rembrant Peale was painting in Boston, 
he met a youth iti the street, about sixteen years of age, whose beauty of 
features, and especially his exquisite complexion, impelled him to invite tlie lad 
to his studio for the purpose of painting his portrait. That youth was Nathaniel 
Parker Willis, the son of a publisher, wlio w;is born in Portland, Maine, on the 
20th of January, 1807. His family removed to Boston wlien he was about six 
years of age; and at the Latin School in tluit city, and the Phillips Academy at 
Andover, li'.> was prepared for a collegiate course. He was graduated at Yale 
College at the age of twenty years, witli the reputation of a good scholar and 
poet of mucli promise. He wrote and published a series of Scripture sketches in 
rliyme while he was a student; and he won a prize of fifty dollars offered by a 
j)ublisher for the best poem. 

Immediately after his graduation, young Willis was employed in editorial 
labors by Samuel CI. Goodrich (Peter Parley,) and at the same time he established 
the "'American Monthly Magazine." This was afterward merged into the '"New 
York Mirror," in which, a few years later, appeared a series of brilliant sketches 
of travel, entitled " Pencilings by the Way," from Mr. Willis's pen. These were 
spirited and picturesque descriptions of scenes and incidents of the author's expe- 
rience during a long tour in tlie countries bordering on the Mediterranean, 
Levant and Black seas. He went to England, and tliere. in 1835, he married a 
daughter of General Stace, commander of Woolwicii Arsenal. In England, as 
well as on the Continent, he enjoyed society in the higlier circles. 

On his return to America, with his bride, in 1837, Mr. Willis purchased a 
small estate near Owego, New York, which he called "Glenmary." There he 
resided until 1839, when he revisited Kngland, and there wrote the letter-press 
for Bartlett's " Views of the Scenery of the United States and Canada." In 1844, 



HENRY R. SCHOOLCRAFT. 428 

ho was ill New York, where he associated himself with General Morris in tlie 
pubacatlou oi the " Evening- Mirror." The death of liis wife and his own ill- 
heakh caused him to revisit England in 1845. The following year lie returned 
to New York, and was married to a daugliter of Joseph Grinnell of New Bedford. 
With that accomplished woman he lived in a delightful home in a picturesque 
spot on the western border of Newburgh Bay, near Cornwall (whicli he named 
"Idlewild,") until his death, wliicli occurred there on the 20th of January, 1867. 
He liad tlien been associated for many years with General Morris in editing and 
publishing tlie "Home Journal,*' a popular weekly paper, devoted much to a 
record of tlie doings of society in general, and the literary world. 

Mr. Willis was a prolific writer of prose and poetry. His published works are 
comprised in about thirty volumes. We can not enumerate them here. Most 
of them are familiar to American readers. His writings are mostly discursive. 
He was possessed of those rare gifts which constitute a great and solid thinker — 
a philosopher; and he was capable of producing works that might have been 
eminent standards in literature. But he spent his wonderful powers in such a 
way — diffusive — that he has left a fi:dse- impression of his real intellectual char- 
acter. He is generally regarded as an accomplished poet, and an essayist of 
great brilliancy employed upon unimportant themes; as a journalist who was 
more fascinated with the frivolties of flishion, dress and the gay and idle world, 
than with the higher topics of human thought. Mr. Willis was practically untrue 
to himself. 



TO Henry Rowe Schoolcraft the world is more indebted for a variety of knowl- 
edge of Indian history, ethnology, arclu\3ology. character, customs and cos- 
tumes, than to any other man. He was a native of Watervliet, Albany country, 
New York, where he was born on the 28th of March. 1793. His ancestral name 
was Calcraft. The first immigrant of that name, to this country, taught school 
in Albany, and he was called ScJiool-cvni^t. 

Young Schoolcraft entered Union College as a student at the age of fifteen 
years, and obtained a knowledge of the natural sciences and some foreign lan- 
guages from other sources also. He learned the business of glass-making from his 
father, but loved scientific pursuits better. He explored mineral regions in Mis- 
souri and other parts of the then " West," and published an account of his adven- 
tures there, in 1825. 

Mr. Schoolcraft became mucli interested in the Indians, with whom he had lived 
much durmg his travels; and in 18-22 he was appointed Indian Agent ou the 
Northwest frontier, with his headquarters at the Saut St. Marie. He was after- 
ward stationed at Michillimackinac, where he married the grand-daughter of an 
Indian chief, who had been well educated in Europe, and was a girl of 
remarkaV)le beauty. For a long period he devoted a greater part of the time to 
a study of the Indians. Meanwhile, from 1828 to 1832, he was a member of the 
State Legislature of Michigan, and founded the Historical Society of Michigan. 
He also founded the Algic Society of Detroit. Two of his lectures on the gram- 
matical construction of the Indium languages were translated by Mr. Duponceau, 
of Philade'phia, and won for the author the gold medal of the French Institute. 
His mind and pen worked most industriously, and he published poems, essays 
and addresses. 

At the head of an exploring party in 1832, Mr. Schoolcraft was the first to 
discover the real chief source of the Mississippi River, in Lake Itasca. He was 



424: JOSIAH QUIXCY. 



engaged successfully in making treaties with the Indians for the cession of lands 
to the United States; and was, for some time, chief superintendent of Indian 
affairs and disbursing agent for the northern department. He visited Europe in 
1842, and on his return he made a tour in Western Virginia, Ohio and Canada, 
and comminiicated what he had discovered of Indian Antiquities to the 'Royal 
Antiquarian Society of Denmark, ot which he was an honorary member. 

In 1845, Mr. Sclioolcraft, by autliority of the Legislature of New York, made 
a census of and gathered a large amount of statistics concerning the Six Nations, 
which was published in a condensed form, in 1848. Early in 1847, the National 
Congress, appreciating the importance of his labors, passed a resolution under 
which he was engaged in the preparation of an elaborate work on the Indians. 
Six large quarto volumes of tliis work had appeared at the time of his death, with 
the title of " Historical and Statistical Inforn>ation respecting the History, Condi- 
tion and Prospects ot the Indian Tribes of the United States." He resided in 
the city of Washington while engaged upon this great work, and there he died, 
after suffering sometime from partial paralysis, on the lOtli e.^' December, 1864. 



^i T/'ING Josiah the First " was the title given to a caricature of Josiah Quincy, 

J-V of Boston, while he was the leader of the Federal party in the National 
Congress. It was in allusion to his almost regal swa}^ over tliat body, his party, 
and the majority of the people of New England at the beginning of our last war 
with Great Britain. Mr. Quincy was then in the full vigor of mature manliood. 
]Ie was born in Boston on the 4th of February, 1712, and was the only child of 
Josiah Quincy, Jr., the eloquent orator and zealous patriot when the old war 
for independence was a-kindling. 

Josiah Quincy was graduated at Harvard College in 1790, at the age of eight- 
een years, with the highest honors of his class. Three years later he commenced 
the practice of law in Boston, but was more enamored with politics and public 
life, than with his profession. It was at the period of the formation of the two 
great political parties known respectively as Federal and Republican. He asso- 
ciated with the former part}^, took an active part in all its operations in his section, 
and in tlie year 1800 was its candidate for a seat in the national House of Repre- 
sentatives. He was defeated, but won the honor in 1804, and took his seat in 
Congress in December, 1805. There he was kept by successive elections until 
1813, when he retired to private life with the intention of devoting his time 
chiefly to agricultund pursuits at his countrj'' seat in Quincy, Massachusetts. 

In Congress Mr. Quincy 's fiery eloquence and commanding force of character 
made him a conspicuous leader. Ho denounced the war declared against Great 
Britain, in 1812, as unnecessary and unjustifiable; but when it was begun, he 
patriotically laid aside all prejudices and opinions of his own, and voted for sup- 
plies of men and money. 

Mr. Quincy "s abilities were of too high an order to allow him to withhold them 
altogether from the public service. He was soon drawn out from his quiet retreat 
to engagj in the turmoil of politics. In 1814, he was elected to a seat in the 
Massachusetts Senate, and he continued to occupy it until 1820. Then he was 
elected a member of his State's House of Representatives, and chosen to be its 
Speaker. In 1821, he was made Judge of tlie municipal court of Boston, in 
which capacity he was tlie first to declare, in the face of prevailing ideas and the 
common practice, that tlie publication of the truth with good motives is not 
libelous. In 1823 he was elected Mayor of Boston. He held that office until 



JOSIAH QUINCY. 



425 




J o^^ ""eoi^ cJi 



e^j^--Cyx 



kJLAj? 



]828, wlicn he was chosen President of Harvard University, and entered upon 
its dulie.-! in June, 1829. These duties he continued to perforin with signal 
ability until tlie summer of 1845, when he was seventy-three years of age. 
Then he made a final withdrawal from public life. 

Mr. Qaincy's remaining years, which were many, were happily spent in lite- 
rary employment, and in rare social enjoyments. A Memoir of his Father; a 
*' History of Harvard University," in two volumes; " Municipal History of Boston 
during Two Centuries," and a "Life of Jolm Quincy Adams.'" comprise his most 
conspicuous writings. He always took a lively interest in puljlic affairs ; and 
when he was eighty-two years of age (1856,) ho wrote and spoke in pubhc in 
behalf of the Republican party, then just formed, and of its candidate for Pres- 
ident, Colonel Fremont. 

Mr. Quincy was a firm supporter of the government when the late civil war 
broke out, in 1861: and at the age of ninety years, he made a public harangue, 
in which he said tiiat he regarded the war as a most hopeful sign of the future 
prosperity of the Republic, and predicted that the date of its close would be the 
commencement of a new and more glorious era of our national greatness. To- 
day that prediction is evidently fulfilled. 

Mr. Quincy was the last survivor of the members of Congress during the war 
of 1812. He had outlived the political cotemporaries of his earlier years. He, 
too, died when he was some months more than ninety-two years of age. That 
event occurred on the first day of July, 1864, at his ancestral home, in Quincy. 



426 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. 



IN Salem — quaint and curious to the apprehension of the student of our social, 
religious and political history — the theatre of events which form some of the 
most remarkable episodes in the chronicles of New England, Nathaniel Haw- 
thorne was born, on "Independence Day," in the year 1804. He was the 
product of the genuine Puritan seed planted there when John Endicot set out 
■cne pear-tree yet flour'shing in green old age. 

Living on the borders of the sea, Hawthorne's ancestors, for several genera- 
tions, were mariners. Tlie last of that profession, in direct line, was his father, 
who died of fever in Calcutta, in 1810. Nathaniel was a delicate boy, yet he 
went well tlirougli preparations for higher studies, and entered Bowdoin College, 
in Maine, where he was graduated at the age of twenty years, with Longfellow, 
the poet, and other men who have become eminent. The habits of his early life 
were peculiar. He was a recluse, seldom walking out excepting at night, and 
passing the day in his room indulging his imagination in writing wild stories and 
burning many of them when finished. Some were saved and anonymously 
published ; and in 1837 he made a collection of them and issued them in a volume 
with the title of " Twice-told Tales." These were recognized by the appreciating 
few as the fruits of rare genius, and they grr-dually won their way to popular 
favor. In the following year, Mr. Bancroft, the historian, then collector of cus- 
toms at Boston, gave Mr. Hawthorne the office of weigher and ganger. He was 
displaced by a new collector in 1841, when he joined a community known as the 
Brook Farm Fraternity, then organizing at Roxbury. In the course of a year he 
left it, married, made his residence at the old parsonage at Concord, and there hid 
in seclusion for about three years, when Mr. Bancroft, then Secretary of the 
Navy, appointed him collector of the port of Salem. 

In 1849 there was a change of administration, and Mr. Hawthorne was again 
displaced. He moved to a cottage in Lennox, where he wrote his remarkable 
romance, "The House with Seven Gables." This was followed by "The Scarlet 
Letter" and "Blithedale Romance;" and in 1852, by a "Life of Franklin Pierce," 
jiis intimate college friend, then a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. 
Mr. Pierce was elected, and appointed Mr. Hawthorne consul at Liverpool. He 
resigned that office in 1857, traveled on the Continent, and returning home resumed 
the labors of his pen. He wrote " The Marble Faun," and a collection of sketches 
of English scenery and character which he called " Our Old Home." He wrote 
several pleasing books for the young; and until a few weeks before his death lie 
was engaged upon a novel which was to have been pubhshed in the '■ Atlantic 
Monthly " magazine. It was never finished. Journeying with his friend, Mr. 
Pierce, to the White Mountains, in search of recreation of body and mind, he war; 
a lodger at the Pemigewasset House, in Plymouth, New Hampshire, on the night 
of the ]8th of May, 18G4, and there he died, alone, early on the morning of tiio 
19th. He was a great and original thinker and writer, yet not so well known 
and admired by the multitude as many men of less genius. 



T 



joiinsr TYLEiPi. 

HE tenth President of the Republic was John Tyler, a native of Charles City 
county, Virginia, where he was born on the 29th of March, 1790. He was 



MARIAN VAN BUREN. 427 



graduated at William and Mary College in 1807, and was admitted to the bar at 
the age ot nineteen years. He was a young man of more than ordinary ability, 
and soon rose to distinction in his profession. In 1811 he was elected to a seat 
in the Virginia Legislature, and continued in that position about five years. He 
was elecied to Congress to lill a vacancy, in 1816, where he served, after re- 
election, until 1819. He was elected governor of Virginia in 1825, and after 
serving two years, was chosen to represent his State in tlie National Senate. He 
continued in that office until 1S36. In 18-10 he was elected Vice President of 
tlie United States, when General Harrison was elected President.^ The latter 
died a month after his inauguration, in the Spring of 1841, when Tyler became 
President. At the clos3 of his administration he retired to private life, from 
which he emerged in the winter of 1861, when he espoused the cause of the con- 
spirators against the life of the Republic. He was president of the so-called 
"Peace Convention" held in Washington, and was one of the committee who, in 
April following, transferred the control of all tiie military forces of Virginia to 
the so-called Confederate Government, at Montgomerj^, of which Jefferson Davis 
was chief. Mr. Tyler took an active part against his country, and was rewarded 
with the office of "Senator" in tlio "Confederate Congress" at Richmond. 
He was acting in that capacity when he died, at Richmond, on the 18tli of 
January, 18G2. 



IN the quiet little village of Kinderhook, in Columbia county. New York, there 
was an indifferent tavern at the close of the Revolution, kept' by a 
Dutchman named Van Buren. There his distinguished son, Martin,' was born on 
the 5th of December, 1782. He was educated at the Academy in that village, 
and at tlie age of Iburteen years commenced the study of law. In 1803 he was 
admitted to the bar. He had a fondness for politics, and attached himself to the 
Democratic part3\ In 1808 he was appointed Surrogate of Columbia county; 
and in 1812 he was elected to a seat in the State Senate. In ]815 he was 
appointed attorney-general of the St:ite, and the following year he was ao-ain 
elected State Senator. With a few others he now formed a political organization 
wiiich controlled the politics of the State for twenty years. 

In 1821 Mr. Van Buren was chosen by his State Legislatiu'e to a seat in the 
National Senate. He was reelected to tlie Senate in 1827, but resigned that office 
on being chosen governor of New York to fill the vacancy caused by the death 
o^f Devvitt Clinton. While in tliat office ho proposed the admirable "Safety 
Pund" sj..tem of banking, Avhich was set in motion. In 1829 he was called 
into the cabinet of President Jackson as Secretary of State. He resigned the 
office in April, 1831, and in September following he arrived in England as 
American Minister at the British Court. His nomination was rejected by the 
Senate three months afterward, and he returned home. He was on the ticket 
with Jackson, as a candidate for the Vice-presidency of the republic, in 1832, and 
was elected; and in 1836 he was elected President of the United States, the 
eiglith incumbent of that office. His term was marked by much excitement, 
growing out of financial embarrassments tln-ougliout the countrv. Ho called an 
extraordmary session of Congress, wlien tlie financial measure known as tlie 
Independent Treasury System was adopted, on his earnest recommendation. 

For several years t he Democratic party had been largely in the majority. 

1. See pnge 240. 



428 EDWARD ROBINSON". 

Now came a chaug-e, and Mr. Van Buren. who was the Democratic nominee for 
President, in 1840, was overwliolmingly defeated by General Harrison. In 
1844 he was a candidate for another nomination, at Baltimore, but was rejected 
by the slave-holding interest, and Mr. Polk was chosen in his stead. Four 5^ears 
later he was nominated for the presidency by the "Free-soil Democracy," or that 
portion of the party who were opposed to the extension of slavery. The Demo- 
cratic part}'- was divided on that issue, and General Taylor, the Whig candid;;te, 
was elected. From that time until his death Mr, Van Buren remained in private 
life, living most of the time at his home in the village of his birtli, excepting 
when he made a tour in Europe in 1853, 1854 and 1855. When the civil war 
broke out in 18G1, Mr. Van Buren expressed himself decidedly in favor of tlie 
maintenance of tlie Union. He did not live to see the end of the conflict. He 
died at his lino mansion, in Kindeihook, on the 24th of July, 1862, at the age of 
eighty years. 



EDAV^^IiD ROBINSON. 

THERE are few biblical scholars and writers on the sacred books to whom the 
world is so much indebted for accurate knowledge of Palestine and its 
neighborhood, whieli Jews and Christians fondly call tlie "Holy Land," as to 
Edward Robinson, whose learning and patience achieved great tilings in the 
field of research. He was a native of Soutliington, Connecticut, wliere he was 
born on tlie 10th of April, 1794. He was graduated at Hamilton College, in 
New York, at the age of twenty-two, and remained there as tutor until 1821, 
when he removed to Andovcr, Massachusetts. At the theological seminary 
there he studied the Hebrew language; and he engaged with Professor Stuart 
in tlie translation of f=ome text-books in German. 

In 182G, Mr. Robinson went to Europe, where he spent four years in studying 
and traveling. At Hi;lle, in Germany, he married the daughter of Professor vcn 
Jakob, who afterward became widely known in both hemispheres by her writ- 
ings over ihe signature of "Talvi." On his return to America in 1830, he was 
rppointed Professor of Sacred Literature and Librarian, at the Andover Seminary, 
in whicli position he remained until 1833, when he removed to Boston. Four 
years afterward he was appointed Professor of Biblical Literature in Union Tlieo- 
logical Seminary, in tlie city of Now York. Before entering upon the duties of 
that office, he visited Palcctine, and spent more than a year there, with Dr. Eli 
Smith, in making a careful geographical survey of that interesting country. At 
Berlin ho prepared an account of their operations, for the press, and liis celebrated 
Avork entitled "Biblical Researches in Palestine, and in the Adjacent Countries: 
a Journal of Travels in the year 1838," was pubHshed simultaneously in Europe 
and in America. He made his residence in New York in 1 840, and from that time 
until th3 year of his death, ho held the professorship in the theological seminary 
tlicre, already mentioned. 

Tlie honorary titles of D. D. and LL. D. were conferred upon Mr. Robinson, 
the latter by Yale College ; and he was always an honor to the title and the insti- 
tution. In 1852, he revisited Palestine, with Dr. Smitli, and made many import- 
ant discoveries, especially among the ruins of Jerusalem. He published a 
volume embodjnng a narrative of new discoveries, in 1856. At tlie time of his 
death he was engaged in the preparation of a physical and historical geography 
of tlie Holy Land. He did not live to complete it. His death occurred in the 
city of New York on tlie 27th of January, 1863. 

Dr. Robinson was not only a most profound biblical scholar, but a philologist 



ELIPHALET NOTT. 429 

ana linguist of rare repute. He translated several Greek and Hebrew text-books, 
as well as other standard works in the Greek lun:::uago ; also Calmet's " Biblical 
Dictionary." He edited, for several years, the "Biblical Repository," and "Bib- 
liotheca Sacra ;" and was a prominent member of tlio New York Historical So- 
ciety, and of the American Geographical, Ethnological and Oriental Societies. 



HISTORY furnishes no other example of longevity in a single public position, 
like that of Eiiphalet Nott, who was, for the space of sixty-two years, Presi- 
dent of Union College, at Sclienectada, in the State of Xew York. Ho was a 
native of Ashton, Windham county, Connecticut, where he was born on the 25tli 
of June, 1773. His father had been a merchant, but by a series of misfortunes, 
he was reduced to poverty and rendered unable to give his son th.e college edu- 
cation he had intended for him. His motlier, a woman of culture, aided him 
much in the difficult search for knowledge; and his uncle. Rev. Samuel Nott, 
taught him Latin and Greek. He was so well liome-educatcd, that at tlie age of 
sixteen years he was a school teacher in Plainlield, Connecticut. There he 
studied mathematics and tlie "dead languages" under the Rev. Dr. Benedict, 
whose daughter he afterward married. He spent a year at Brown University, 
and was graduated out of the regular course, in 1795. Ho studied theology, and 
entered upon the duties of a minister of the gospel, as a missionary in Central 
New York, then almost a wilderness. He accepted an invitation to tike charge 
of a congregation at Cherry Valley, where iio was also the successful head of an 
academy for boys. In 1798 he accepted a call to the pastorate of a Presbyterian 
church in Albany, and there he remained preaching to large and admiring con- 
gregations until 1804, when he was cliosen President of Union College, at Sclie- 
nectada; an institution then in its infanc}^ It was without suitable buildings, 
library and apparatus, and involved in debt. Mr. Nott gave it tlie help of his 
energies of body and mind, without stint; and in 1814 he procured a legislative 
act for raising money by lottery, which gave it funds and a permanent founda- 
tion. The management of tlie lottery and investment of the funds were left 
entirely with Mr. Nott; and an investigation of the pecuniary affairs of tlie insti- 
tution, made at his request after forty years of his management, showed that 
every thing had been done wisely and well. He not only made the property of 
the college valuable, but he added to it a large sum from his own private fortune, 
at the close of that investigation. He had taken the institution in his arms in 
its infancy and poverty, and lifted it to honor and wealth. 

In 185'' the semi-centennial anniversary of his presidency was celebrated, 
when nearly seven hundred men, some of the most distinguished in the land, who 
had been graduated at Union College, came together to do him honor. During 
his Presidency, over four thousand graduates left the institution. 

Dr. Nott (he had received the degrees of D. D. and LL. D.) paid much attention 
to the subject of heating apartments, and was the inventor of a celebrated stove 
that bore his name. He was a life-long advocate of temperance, and spoke and 
wrote much on that subject. Many of his discourses were published. Of these, 
the most celebrated was a sermon preached before the General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in 1804, on the occasion of the death of Alexander Hamilton. 

Dr. Nott was President of Union College at the time of his death, which occur- 
red at Schenectada, on the 29th of January, 1866, when he was almost ninety- 
three years of age. He had lived to see the government of his country which 
was established in his youth, settled upon a solid foundation of justice and wis- 



430 DAVID L. SWAIN". 



dom; and the fact demonstrated by the results of a great civil war, that of rli 
forms of government for an enhghtened people, the republican is the strongest 
and most stable. 







F David Lowrj Swain it might be justly written as Hannah More wrote of 
another, saying, 

" Iv'e sennned tlie actions of his daily life 
With all t!ie industrious malice of a foe; 
And nothing meets my eyes hut deeds of honor." 

Mr. Swain was an lionored statesman and beloved educator. He was born 
near Asheville, Buncombe county, Xorth Carolina, on the 4th of January, ISOl. 
His earlier education was obtained at the Asheville Academy ; and his studies 
were completed at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill. He was 
admitted to the practice of the law as a life vocation, in 1823. His rare abilities 
and excellent deportment soon won for him a lucrative business in his profession. 

Mr. Swain began his public career in 1824, wlien he was elected a representa- 
tive of his native county in the legislature of North Carolina. Ho served therein 
three consecutive j^ears. In 1827 he was solicitor of the Edenton District. Ho 
was again in the Legislature in 1828 and 1829; and in 1830 he was elected one 
of the Board of Internal Improvements. The same year he was chosen to be a 
judge of the Superior Court of his State. In 1832, he was elected Governor of 
North Carolina. While holding that office in 1835, he was chosen to a seat in 
the convention that revised the Constitution of his native State. His influence 
was jDotential in that body. In December, that 3'ear, he was chosen to fill the 
important position of President of tlie Universit}^ of North Carolina wherein ho 
had been educated. It had been established at Chapel Hill, a few miles from 
Raleigh, the capital of the State, soon after the old War for Independence. He 
was the immediate successor of the eminent Dr. Caldwell, its first President. 

The most useful part of Governor Swain's life was spent in the conduct of that 
University. When lie was called to assume its control, he was only tliirty-four 
years of age. Nine years before, he had married Eleanor White, a grand-daughter 
of the eminent patriot. Governor Richard Caswell. See sketch on page 96. 
His administration of the affairs of the University, financial and educational, was 
eminently successful. When he took charge of it in 1835, the number of its 
students was eighty. Just before the breaking out of the late civil war, its cata- 
logue contained over four hundred and fifty names. His government was 
parental, and his influence upon the students was that of "the highest style of 
man," — a Christian gentleman. 

President Swain was an ardent delver in the rich mines of American history. 
No man ever worked those of his native State so industriousl}'", patriotically and 
wisely as he ; and when he was summoned to a higher sphere of life, he was 
about to arrange his collected treasures in proper form for use. " He knew more 
of North Carolina and of her public men," said a cotemporary, at his death, 
"than any living man. Perhaps it is not going too far to say that his knowl- 
edge upon these two points was more extensive than the combined knowledge 
of every man in tlie State." It may be added that at the time of his death, a 
very large number of the most distinguished men of North Carolina had been his 
pupils at Chapel Hill. More than a thousand living men had listened to his 
instruction in that school. 

When the late civil war was impending, and after it was kindled, President 



JOHN" W. FRANCIS. 431 



Swain did all in his power to calm the troubled waters. He was a Patriot and 
a Christian, in the highest sense of the terms. He enjoyed the conlidence of all; 
and when vSherman's victorious army was approaching Raleigh in the Spring (>f 
1865, he was at the head of a commission appointed to wait upon that leader 
and make arrangements for staying bloodshed and devastation in that region. 
In the heat of passion that everywhere prevailed then, and immediately after the 
war, President Swain's wise conduct was misinterpreted and misrepresented; 
and so bitter was the feeling because his daughter, at the close of the war, mar- 
ried General Atkins of the National army, that all support was withdrawn from 
the University at Cliapel Hill, and it was allowed to lall asleep.^ Its property, 
excepting its land and buildings, had been wasted by the operations of the war, 
and it now (1869) seems dead. It will doubtless one day awake from its slum- 
bers with increased vigor, and enter upon a new career of usefulness. And on 
the tomb of David L. Swain, the good, the wise, the generous benefactor of his 
race, posterity will write, in spirit, 

" He was the noblest Roman of them nil." 

President Swain was thrown from his light carriage on the 11th of August, 
1868. Ho lingered until the 27th of the same month, when he died at the age 
of little more than sixty-eight years. 



ON a cliilly day in February, 1861, there was a large concourse of the most 
noted inhabitants of the city of New York at old St. Thomas' churcli, on tlie 
corner of Broadway and Houston street, to pay the last tribute of respect to the 
remains of an eminent and beloved physician and distinguished citizen. The 
physician so beloved, and the citizen so esteemed, was John Wakefield Francis, 
a liative of New York city, where he was born on the 17th of November, 1789. 
He was a printer's apprentice when a small lad, but was afterward prepared for 
a professional life. He entered Columbia College, in New York, as m.ember of 
an advanced class, in 1807, At about the same time ho began the study of 
medicine with Dr. Hosaek. He was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of 
Arts in 1809, and received a diploma as Medical Doctor from tho College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, in 1811. He was the first person on whom tlie degree 
was conferred by that institution. Soon afterward the medical school of Colum- 
bia College was consolidated with that of Physicians and Surgeons, and to young 
Francis was assigned the chair of materia medica in the united body. He had 
been assoc'ated with Dr. Hosaek, as a business partner, soon after his medical 
graduation, and was a co-laborer with that distinguished physician in the editing 
and publishing of the "American Medical and Philosophical Register." 

Soon after his appointment to the chair of materia medica, in 1813, he went 
to Europe for the purpose of increasing his knowledge of his profession. There 
he became acquainted with most of the living men distinguished in science and 

]. General Atkins' ndvnnced guard entered Chnpel Hill on Sunday, the 16th of April, 18G5. On 
the foHovvins day the General himself entered with four thousand cavalry, and tdok ])Ossession. He 
had orders to protect tiie University huildings and the village, in consequence of President Swain's 
services on the commission mentioned in the text. He visited at Governor Swain's house, became 
acquainted with his daughter, who was, being of lawful age, mistress of her own actions, and tliey 
were engaged to he married before tlie Governor suspected the fact. It was not known until after 
General Atkins' departure, when the affianced informed her father. They were married. Because 
of this, a nol)le in-titution of learning was smitten to dcaih. The folly was soon reix>nted of, when 
reason aiad not passion finally bore Bwaj , 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN-. 



literature; among them Dr. Rees, to whose Cyclopedia he contributed several 
jiapers. On his return to New York, he became professor in the College of 
rh_ysicians and Surgeons, first of the institutes of medicine, and in 1817, of medi- 
cal jurisprudence. Two years later he was appointed professor of obstetrics, 
which position he filled until 182G, when, with others, he founded the short-lived 
institution known as the Rutgers' Medical School, and held in it the professorship 
of obstetrics and forensic medicine. 

While Dr. Francis held these professional positions and filled them with 
marked industry and ability, he w;'.s engaged in an extensive and increasing 
practice. In addition to his arduous professional duties, he was also continually 
engaged in literary pursuits. He was a ready and eloquent writer upon what- 
ever subject employed his pen. lie was particularly eminent as a biographer, 
especially of distinguished men with whom he was acquainted; and no one man 
ever made so many and excellent contributions to the treasury of American biog- 
raphy as he. His essays and discourses on a great variety of topics, occupj^ a 
large space in our literature. lie was an ardent lover and patron of art; and 
the deserving man of genius, however humble, always found in him a benefactor 
and friend. He was honored and beloved by all of the literary men and artists 
of his day; and men of science esteemed him highly for his genial sympathy in 
their labors. 

Dr. Francis was an active worker in all etforts around him for the promotion 
of the good of his fellow men; and his influence and services were continuallj'' 
sought, for both were powerful. He took great interest in the New York Typo- 
graphical Society; the New York Historical Society; the Lyceum of Natural 
History; the New York Academy of Medicine; the American Acr.demy of 
Design, and other institutions. He was the first president of the New York 
Academy of Medicine, which was organized in 1847. He was active in the 
promotion of the objects of the Woman's Hospital in New York, and the Ine- 
briate Asylum at Binghampton, N. Y. ; and he was an honorary member of 
several foreign and domestic associations. In 1850, Trinity College, at Hartford, 
conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL. D. In knowledge of the men 
and things of his native cit}^, he was regarded as an almost unerring oracle. His 
house was the pleasant resort of intellectual men of every kind, and in their 
entertainment he was happy in the companionship of his wife, one of the best of 
women. The social gatherings at his house were kept up until a very short 
time before his death, which occurred in the city of New York on the 8th of 
February, 1861. In the death of his promising son, J. W. Francis, Jr.,' a few 
years before, his nervous system received a shock from which he never recovered. 
His affection for relatives and friends was very strong. His genial good naiure 
made him a delightful companion, and his skill in medicine won for him the pro- 
found reverenceof his professional cotemporaries. Dr. Francis was "the beloved 
physician " of his native city. 



'i'VKTJTTl malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right 
VV as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we r.re 
in, to bind up the Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the 
battle and for his widow and orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." These were the 

1. See page 407. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. , 433 

closing words of the second inaugural address of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth 
president of the Republic, just before the end of the great Civil War. They are 
illustrations of the character of the man, who was always patient, kind, forgiving, 
trusting, wise and patriotic. 

Mr. Lincoln was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, on the 12th of Februar}';. 
1809. His father was an early settler, and struggled hard for a livelihood. 
When Abraham was in the eighth year of his age, the whole family embarked 
on a raft on Salt river, went down the Ohio, and settled iu the then wilderness 
of Spencer county, Indiana. There, in a log cabin built b}' the elder Lincoln's 
own hands, Abraliam's mother taught him to read and write. When he was ten 
years of age she died. Two years later a kind step-mother took her place. At 
twelve the boy was taught arithmetic and some other branches of a common 
school education. But few books fell in his way, and these he read with avidiiy. 

Young Lincoln labored with his father in the solitudes, until, at the age of 
nineteen, when he was a very tall lad, he made a voyage to New Orleans on a 
flat-boat, with the son of the owner of it. It bore a valuable cargo, and at one 
place they were compelled to tight for its preservation from a band of plunderers. 

In 1830, the Lincoln family removed to Decatur, Illinois, where young Lincoln 
assisted his father in clearing and fencing a farm. He was also a clerk in a store 
a part of tlie time. In 1832, the conflict known as the "Black Hawk War" 
broke out on the borders of the Mississippi. Abraham Lincoln enlisted as a 
volunteer, and as Captain of a company went to the seat of war, but had no 
fighting. On his return he received a heavy vote for a seat in the Illinois Legis- 
lature, but was defeated. Then he opened a store on his own account; was 
appointed postmaster; studied hard all the time; became a good surveyor, and 
for about two years made surveying his chief business. He served a term in the 
Illinois Legislature,, in 1834, and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar 
in 1837, when he was twenty-eight years of age. He soon won reputation and 
a lucrative practice. He served again in the legislature, ranking as a Wliig of 
the Henry Clay school. He was a ready pleader at the bar, and speaker at 
public gatherings. In 1846 he was elected to Congress, and was the only Whig- 
Representative from Illinois. There he was marked for soundness of judgment 
and attachment to the principles of justice and right. He was uniformly a 
decided but conservative anti-slavery man; and when tlie Nebraska bill was 
passed and the -'Missouri" compromise was violated, in 1854, he greatly assisted 
in revolutionizing Illinois politically. Judge Douglas originated the Nebraska 
bill in the National Senate, and his party (Democratic) suffered in consequence. 
The Whigs carried the State, and Mr. Lincoln, who was a prominent candidate 
for the National Senate, generously withdrew in favor of Mr. Trumbull, a rival 
candidate, who he knew would receive many Democratic votes. • Trumbull was 
chosen. 

In 1856, Mr. Lincoln took an active part in favor of the Republicans, and he 
was a prominent candidate for the Vice-presidency. In 1858, he was a candi- 
date for the National Senate, in opposition to Stephen A. Douglas. They ably 
canvassed the State together. It was one of the most interesting and able con- 
flicts of oratory ever known in this countr\^ Their speeches were afterward 
published from phonographic reports. It was generally conceded that Mr. Lin- 
coln was the victor. 

Between 1856 and 1860 Mr. Lincoln made several powerful speeches. In 
May, the latter year, he was nominated for the presidency of the Republic, and 
elected in November. Leading slaveholders made his election a pretext for an 
open rebellion which they had long contemplated: and he was inaugurated Pres- 
ident on the 4th of March, 1861, wlien insurrection and rebellion had begun in the 
Slave-labor States. He met the crisis calmly, generously and firmly ; and during 

28 



431 JAMES BUCHANAN. 



the four years of terrible civil war that ensued, he controlled the helm of the ship 
of State with eminent wisdom and steadiness. At the moment when peace for 
the saved Republic and rest for himself was »ear, he was mortally wounded by 
a ball from a pistol in the hands of an assassin, at a place of public entertainment 
in Washington city, whither he had been invited. The wound was received ou 
the evening of the 14th of April, 1865, and early the next morning the victim 
died. The" event produced a profound sensation throughout the civilized world. 
Among the many impressive testimonials of love, esteem and admiration of the 
martyred President that were given, was a gold medal sent from France to his 
AvidoV, for the cost of whicli forty thousand "French Democrats,'- at, they called 
themselves, made contributions, mostly one sous, each. 



MANY of tlie strong men, physically and intellectually, wliv* have appeared 
conspicuously in the annals of our country, have be^u ihe children of 
Scotch-Irish parents. Of such lineage was .lames Buchanaii, ths tifteenth Presi^' 
dent of our Republic. He was born at a place called Stoujr Batter, in Franklin 
county, Pennsylvania, on tlie 23d of April. 1791. He was, prepared, at home, 
for admission to Dickinson College, at Carlisle, as a studeni;, where he was grad- 
uated with high honors at the age of eighteen years. He was admitted to the 
practice of law at the Lancaster bar, in 1812; and toward the close of the war 
with Great Britain which was declared that year, he went as a volunteer soldier 
to the defense of Baltimore, but had no occasion for fighi.ing. 

Young Buchanan rose rapidly in his profession and won^ an extensive and 
lucrative practice. He was always fond of public life. In 1814 he was elected 
to the Pennsylvania Legislature by the Federalists. In 1820 he was sent to 
Congress as a representative of the Lancaster District; and he was kept there, 
by reelection, until 1831. During that long service he was ranked among the 
leading members for ability and industry. During the last two years of his 
service there, he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He was appointed 
by President Jackson, in 1831, American minister to the Russian Court, wheie 
he remained only two years. On his return in 1833, he was chosen by tlio 
Pennsylvania Legislature to represent tliat State in the National Congress. 
Twelve years he was a member of the Senate, and was regarded as the leader of 
the Democratic party in that body. There he ever strenuously opposed all 
agitation of the subject of slavery ; and during his whole political life he was a 
zealous and consistent supporter of tlie policy of tlie slaveholders. 

In 1845, Mr. Buchanan was called to the cabinet of President Polk, as Secre- 
tary of State, and was inrtuential in shaping that officer's policy concerning a 
war with Mexico. From the close of Polk's administration unf.l the accession 
of President Pierce in 1853, he remained in private life. Then he was sent, as 
minister, to England, It was during his residence at that court, that a confer- 
ence of American ministers in Europe, held, at liis suggestion, at Ostend, issued 
that " manifesto " concerning the purchase or seizure of Cuba, which forms one 
of the most disgraceful records in American diplomacy. 

Mr. Buchanan returned home early in 1856, and in July, of that year, he was 
nominated for the chief magistracy of the Republic, by the Democratic party. 
He was elected. His administration was marked by an intense agitation of tht. 
slavery question, wliich culminated in civil war in Kansas. Finally, in 1860, 
the last year of his term of office, when Abraham Lincoln, the nominee of the 
Republican party was elected President, leaders of the slave interest made 



JAMES HARPER. 435 



earnest preparations for a general insurrection and rebellion. It broke out 
fiercely in the winter of 1860-61, before the close of Mr, Buchanan's adminis' 
tration. He took no efficient measures to suppress it; and gladly left the grave 
responsibilities of liis office at that perilous hour, for the quiet of private life at 
" Wheatland," his seat near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he died on the first 
of June, 1868. Mr. Buchanan was never married. In private life he was a 
courteous gentleman and an excellent citizen. 



THE sacred troverbialist says, " Seest thou a man diligent in his business ? he 
shall stand before kings ; he shall not stand before moan men." The trutli 
involved in this was illustrated by James Harper, the eldest of four brothers who 
composed tlie great publishing house of Harper and Brothers, in New York, 
which was in existence during fifty years previous to his death. 

James Harper was the eldest son of an estimable farmer near Newtown, Long 
Island, where he was born on the lllh of April, 1795. At the close of 1810, he 
was apprenticed to Messrs. Paul and Thomas, printers in the city of New York, 
He was "diligent in his business ;" became a perfect master of his trade, and won 
the respect and confidence of all who knew him. His next brother, John, 
learned the same business, and the terms of their apprenticeship ended at about 
the same time. By saving the earnings of overwork, they had, jointly, a few 
hundred dollars, and with this capital they commenced business on their own 
account, in 181S. James was a strong young man and one of the best pressmen 
in the city. John was a very correct compositor and proof-reader. Prompt and 
skillful in business, they never lacked employment in printing books for others. 
It was not long before they began to print books for themselves, and selling 
them to "the trade," as the business of retail bookselling is called. Their first 
venture was a reprint of "Locke on the Understanding," and it was successful. 
Others followed. Their younger brothers. Joseph Wesley and Fletcher, were 
apprenticed to them, and in time became business partners, under the name of 
Plarper and Brothers, Mutual confidence, industry and application to business 
made the four as one man. They ranked and acted as equals in all things; and 
mutual agreement was their rule of life in business and in social relations. It 
was also an element of power. James was once asked, "Which is the 'Harper,' 
and who are the 'Brothers?' " He replied, "Either of us is 'Harper,' and the 
rest are tlie 'Brothers,' " This was precisel}^ their practical relationship. 

The history of the house of Harper and Brothers for a long series of years was 
the history of James Harper, excepting in his private relations. He was reared 
under the direct influence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of that denomi- 
nation he was a life-long and consistent member. In him the religious sentiment 
was a controlling power, yet it was never ostentatiously displayed. In his 
domestic relations he was an excellent exemplar. In the church he was faithfid 
and generous. In the community in which he lived he was deservedly held in 
the highest esteem.' This fact was shown in 1844, when he was elected Mayor 
of the city of New York by a very large majority, while the party by whom he 
was nominated was in a decided minority. He had no political ambition, nor a 

• 1. Mr. Harper wns Rn active member of religious and benevo'ent institutions in the rity of New 
Vork, and ii trustee of literary establishments of n high chnriicter; nnmng them the Wesleyan Uni- 
versity of Middletown, Connecticut, and Vassar College for Young Women, at Poughkeepsie, New 
York. 



436 WINFIELD SCOTT. 

thirst for office ; and on that occasion he yielded to the importunities of liis 
friends rather than to any suggestions of his own inclinations. He tilled the 
office with ability and general satisfaction. 

It was as the head of the leading publishing house in America that James 
Harper was best and most widely known, and will be chiefly remembered. He 
dispensed the cheerful hospitality of the establishment; and for each visitor he 
had a cheery welcome, a kind word, a pleasant anecdote, some sly wit or telling 
repartee, and a constant flow of good humor, notwithstanding he was often 
plagued with dull and burdensome people.-' "Ho carried the highest principles 
into the conduct of business," said a leading newspaper^ at the time of his death, 
"and he never willingly gave the sanction of his name to unworthy or mischiev- 
ous productions in literature. No prospects of gain or popular success could 
tempt him to publish a book which he believed to be injurious to the interests 

of society Our national literature will reap the benefit of his example in 

this respect after his kindl}^ face shall no more be seen in our bus}^ haunts, and 
his personal traits shall fade awaj'' from the memory of a new generation." 

While riding in his carriage, with his daughter, on Fifth Avenue, New York, 
his vehicle came in collision with another. He was thrown to tho pavement, 
taken up in an insensible condition and carried to St. Luke's Hospital near by, 
where he lingered about fifty hours, and then died, on Saturday ev?ning, the 
27th of March, 1869. His funeral was attended by the city authorities; the 
great body of the publishers and booksellers of the city, who closed their places 
of business; a large number of literary men, and a crowd of other friends, and 
his relatives. By none, excepting his immediate family, was he so sincerely- 
mourned as by the six hundred men, women and boys employed in the establish- 
ment of Harper and Brothers, for he was like a father to them all. Some had 
been in his employment between forty and fifty years. 



TVIIS-FIELD SCOXT. 

THE military genius of our countrymen was wonderfully developed during the 
late civil war. Its most distinguished exemplar previous to that was Win- 
field Si'Ott, who was born in Petersburg, Virginia, on the 13th of June, 1786. 
He was a grandson of a Scotch soldier who fought for the Young Pretender or^ 
the field of Culloden. 

Young Scott was a student of William and Mary College for two years, where 
he studied law and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty years. lie was 
a very tall and powerful young man, of fine personal appearance. He hr.d a 
taste for the military profession, and finding an opportunity to enter the army, 
he procured the conunission of captain of artillery. After recruiting a company 
he reported to General Wilkinson, at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. After Wilkinson 
left the command there, Captain Scott freely expressed wdiat was generally 
believed, that his late commander was implicated with Aaron Burr in a con- 
spiracy against the Union.^ For this he was suspended from rank and pay for a 
year, by recommendation of a court martial. During that time he studitd the 

1. On one occasion a very prosy clerical friend, who had consumed an hour of his time in smiill 
talk, said, "Brother Harper, I am curious to know how you four men distribute the duties of tl « 
establishment between you." ''John," said Mr. Harper good humoredly, "aUends to the finances; 
Wesley to the correspondence ; Fletcher to the general bargaining with authors and others ; and — 
don't vou tell nnvbody," he said, lowering the tone of his voice — " I entertain the bores." 

2. The JSTew York Daily Tribune, March 29, J8G9. 

3. See page 253. 



WINFIELD SCOTT. 437 



military art diligently; and when, in June, 1812, war was declared by our gov- 
ernment against Great Britain, he was appointed a lieutenant-colonel. 

After the gallant Captain Wool was disabled by wounds at the battle of 
Queenston, Scott took command there, and first won and then lost the field. He 
was made a prisoner, with a greater p:irt of the army; and his personal courage 
and kindness of heart saved a number of his fellow soldiers, who were natives of 
Ireland, Irom the vengeance of tlie British government. 

Scott was exchanged in January, 1813, and joined General Dearborn on the 
frontier as his adjutant. He was very active in the capture of Fort George, 
where he pulled down the Britisli flag. He served with Wilkinson several 
months, and was commissioned a brigadier general in March, 1814. During that 
year he was the hero of many gallant exploits, under General Brown, on the 
Niagara frontier, where he was twice seriously wounded. For his gallant con- 
duct in the battle of Niagara, he was brevetted a major-general, and received a 
gold medal from Congress. After the war he went to Europe in the service of 
the government and for the restoration of his healtli. He returned in 1816, and 
was soon afterward married to Miss Mayo of Richmond, Virginia. For several 
years afterward there were no military movements of much importance. 

In 1832, General Scott led in the Black Hawk war, and then went to Charles- 
ton to look after the insurrectionary movements of certain Southern politicians. 
He was conspicuous in hostilities with the Southern Indians. Afterward he was 
a good peacemaker when the rebellion in Canada and troubles on the eastern 
frontier threatened his country with hostile relations with Great Britain. In 
1838 he had charge of the removal of the Cherokees to new lands west of the 
Mississippi. 

General Scott was presented as the Whig candidate for the Presidency, in 
1840, but he declined in favor o'' ^reneral Harrison. On the death of General 
Macomb the following year, he \»ct&' appointed general-in-chief of the armies oli 
the Republic, and as such, he conducted military affaii'S in the war with Mexico, 
in which he was conspicuously engaged. He was at the head of the victorious 
American army when it entered tlie city of Mexico in triumph in September, 
1847. He was highly honored by Congress and the people, for his conduct in 
that war. In 1852, he was nominated for the Presidency, but was deleated. 
In 1855, he was brevetted lieutenant'-general, to take rank from 1847, the close 
of his services in Mexico. 

When the leaders of the slave "mterest Lad resolved on rebellion, every induce- 
ment was held out to General Scott, as a Virginian, to espouse their cause. Ho 
rejected all, and did all in his power first to avert the rebellion, and afterward to 
crush it. But Iiis infirmities were too great to allow him to act efficiently, and 
he resigned iiis position as tlie chief of the army, in the autumn of 18G1, when 
he made a voyage to Europe and a brief sta}^ there. He lived to see the Avar 
end and the authority of the government vindicated. His character was un- 
stained. His honor was perfect. His career was brilliant and untarn'shed. 
His patriotism was pure and exalted. At the tim.e when he left the comnjand 
of the army, he was regarded as one of the greatest military men of the age. 
His physical powers gradually declined, and on the 29th of May, 186G, he died 
at West Poin*- on the Hudson, near the Military Acaaemy, at the age of eighty 
years. 1 

1. Not long btifore hia death, General Scott wrote and published nis cuiobiography, in a small volume. 



438 JOHN ELLIS WOOL. 



JOILlSr ELLIS T^roOIL.. 

"IVrO man ever had a purer record of his pubHc life than Major General John 
li Ellis Wool, who held a commission in the regular army of the Eepublic for 
the period of fifty-seven years. Fifty-three of those years he was in active ser- 
vice, in peace or war. 

General Wool was the son of a soldier of the Revolution, and was born in the 
village of Newburgh, on the Hudson River, in the year 1788. On the death of 
his father, when he was only four years of age, he went to live Avith his grand- 
father, in Rensselaer County, N. Y., where he received a common school educa- 
tion. At the age of twelve years he was taken from school and apprenticed as 
clerk to a merchant, in Troy. At the age of eighteen years he opened a book- 
store in that place. A fire swept away all his worldly goods, and he commenced 
the study of law. War with Great Britain commenced soon afterward. In the 
spring of 1812, before it was declared, he was commissioned a captain in the 
Thirteenth Regiment of Infantry. In September following, his regiment, under 
Lieutenant Colonel Chrystie, was ordered to the Niagara frontier, and there, in 
the battle at Queenston, the following month, he performed gallant service as 
leader of the troops after Colonel Van Rensselaer was disabled by a wound. 
Captain Wool was shot through both thighs, but fought on until a superior officer 
took command. For his gallant conduct there, he was promoted to Major in the 
Twenty-ninth Infantry, in the spring of 1813. For bravery and skill at and near 
Plattsburg in September, 1814, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in De- 
cember. 

At the close of the war, Lieutenant Colonel Wool was retained in the army. 
When peace was declared, he obtained a furlough for a fortnight, during which 
time he was married to a charming young woman, who survived him after a 
wedlock of more than fifty-three years. That was the only furlough he ever 
asked for, during his long military service. 

In September, 1816, he was appointed inspector-general of division; and in 
1821, inspector-general of the Army of the United States, with the rank of 
Colonel. Five years later he was made Brigadier General b}^ brevet, "for ten 
years' faithful service." He was a thorougli disciplinarian ; sleepless in vigi- 
lance, and always one of the most trusted officers in the service. His reports 
were always models of their kind. 

In 1832, General Wool was sent to Europe to collect information connected 
witli military science. He received great attention, especially in France, where 
he formed one of the suite of King Louis Philippe in a grand review of 70,000 
men. In November, the same year, he accompanied the King of Belgium in a 
review of 100,000 men, and was in Antwerp during its siege. On his return, 
and when difficulties with France were anticipated, he made a thorough inspec- 
tion of our sea-coast defences. In 1836, he assisted in measures for removing 
the Cherokee Indians from Georgia, and displayed in that business the higher 
traits of a soldier and statesman. Two years later, when trouble was anticipated 
on account of insurrection in Canada, he was sent to the then wilds of Maine to 
look after the border defenses. 

In the war with Mexico, General Wool's services as a tactician were of great 
value. He drilled a large portion of the volunteers, and was chiefly instru- 
mental in securing victory at Buena Vista. For his gallant conduct in that war 
he was breveted a Major General. His grateful countrymen bestowed upon him 
many tokens of their approval and regard. 

Toward the close of 1853, when fillibusteriug expeditions were fitted out on 



CHAKLES STEWART. 439 

the Western coast, General Wool was appointed to the command of the Depart- 
ment of the Pacific. It was a laborious and delicate trust, involving some inter- 
national questions, and dealings with Indian tribes. He performed the complex 
duties of his station witli wonderful energy, wisdom and skill. In the spring of 
1855 he made a tour of inspection in the Territories of Oregon and Washington, 
and afterward was efficient in ending hostilities between the white peoi)le and 
the Indians in that region. He was soon afterward appointed to the command 
of tlie Eastern Ddpartment, which comprised the whole country eastward of the 
Mississippi River. He was engaged in the quiet routine of liis duties as such, 
with his head-quarters at his home iu Troy, when the great Civil War broke out. 
With liis wonted energy he warned and intreated tlie national govenuiient to 
Tise its powers in crusliing the rebellion in the bud. Wlien the blow was struck, 
he put forth all his energies iu his Department ; and it is conceded that to Gen- 
eral Wool, more than to anj^ other man, the country is indebted for tlie salvation 
of its capital from seizure by the insurgents. He did excellent service early in 
tlie war that ensued, and in 18G3 he retired to private life. He had been com- 
missioned a full Major General in the Army of the Republic, the year before. 

General Wool died at his residence in Troy early on the morning of the 10th 
of November, in the eighty-second year of his age. The General-in-chief of the 
Army ordered public honors to 1>9 paid to the memory of the deceased soldier ; 
and on the 13th he was buried with military honors. In accordance with his 
request, the bands played the air of " Home, Sweet Home," as the funeral pro- 
cession moved. It was estimated that full tifty thousand persons were in the 
streets. General Wool was greatly esteemed by the inhabitants of Troy, who 
sincerely mourned kis deatJi. 



FOR many years the oldest living officer in the service of the United States, 
and whose commission was given in the last centurj?-, was Charles Stewart, 
one of the prominent American heroes of the war with England in 1812-15. 
His parents were natives of Ireland. His father was a mariner in the merchant 
service, and came to America at an early age. His son Charles was born in the 
city of Philadelphia on the 28th of July, 1778. He was the youngest of eight 
children, and lost his father when he was only ten years old. At the ago of 
thirteen years he entered the merchant service as a cabin-boy, and gradually 
rose to the o'3q.q of captain. His home was on the ocean, and his pursuit was 
delightful to liim. In March, 1798, when his government was strengthening its 
naval force in anticipation ol hostilities with France, he was commissioned a 
Lieutenant in the Nav}'', and made his first cruise under Commodore Barney. 
In the year 1800 he was appointed to the command of the armed schooner Ex- 
perimeat. In the early autumn of that year, he fought and captured the French 
schooner Two Friends^ after an action of ten minutes, without incurring loss on 
his part. He was conspicuous in the war with Tripoli, and was greatly beloved 
by Decatur for his services there and his generous friendship ever afterward. 

In the month of May, 1804, Lieutenant Stewart was promoted to Master- 
Commandant, and to that of Captain, in 1806. During that and the following 
year, he was employed in the construction of gun-boats. In 1812, he was ap- 
pointed to the command of the frigate Constitution, with which he achieved 
great victories for his country and won immortal honors for himself. Ho was 
with her in Hampton Roads early in 1813, when, by skillful management, he 
eluded the enemy, and took his ship safely to Norfolk. He was always a skillful 



44:0 CHARLES STEWART. 



sailor, and when ho was too weak to fight, he managed to retreat or flee in 
safety. His great victory over the Britisli» frigates Cyane and Levaid^ in one 
engagement, early in 1815, was considered a most valiant exploit by both na- 
tions, and his countrymen lavished honors upon him when he returned after 
peace had been proclaimed. The authorities of New York gave him the fieedom 
of the city, in a gold box, and tendered to him and his officers the hospitalities 
of a public banquet. Pennsylvania gave him thanks and a gold-hilted sword j 
and Congress voted him thanks and a gold medal. His exploits and that of his 
ship became the theme for oratory and song; and she, always a "lucky " vessel, 
was called " Old Ironsides;" a name by which her brave commander was known 
ill later years. The ConsUtuiion is yet (1869) in the public service, as a school- 
ship. 

After the war, Commodore Stewart was placed in command of the FranUin, 
74, which conveyed the Honorable Richard Rush, American Minister, to Eng- 
la;id, and then cruised with a squadron in the Mediterranean Sea. He was after- 
ward in command of the Pacitic squadron. After his return, Stewart was con- 
stantly employed in active service, afloat and ashore, until the breaking out of 
the late Civil War, when he retired to his beautiful estate on the banks of tlie 
Delaware, near Bordentown, New Jersey. There the writer visited him a few 
days after the battle of Gettysburg, in July, 18G3, and listened with great in- 
terest to his fluent speech in the recital of some of the most stirring incidents in 
Jiis long and eventful life. He was then eighty-five years of age, but was a 
iiale, compactly-built and active man, with mental powers very little abated. 
Under the new arrangement of official titles in the navy, he was bearing that 
of Vice- Admiral. We left him with a feeling similar to that expressed by an 
anonymous poet, who wrote, 

*'0, oft miiy you meet witli brave Stewnit 
The l;ir \vitli the free luul tlie true heart; 
A bright welcome smile, and a soul free from guile 
You'll find in tlie hero, Clinrles Stewart. 
A commander both generous and bruve, too. 
Who risked his life others to snve, too. 
And thousands who roam by his neat Jersey home 
Bless the kind heart of gallant Charles Stewart." 

Rear-Admiral Stewart died at his residence near Bordentown, on Sunday, 
the 9th of November, 1869, in the ninety-second year of his age. In his 
native city (Philadelphia) imposing funeral honors were awarded him. His 
body lay in state in Independence Hah, and thousands of citizens looked for the 
last time on the face of the hero. For five hours there was a continued stream 
of persons passing the casket in which the body lay. Tliere was an immense 
funeral procession — naval, military, and civic ; the city was draped in mourning, 
and minute guns were fired. 



ROBERT TRK^^T r»AINJE. 

" Ne'er was a nobler spirit born, 
A loftier soul, a gentler heart ; 
Above the world's ignoble scorn. 
Above the reach of veual art." 

THUS sung a genial friend, at the tomb of Robert Treat Paine, a 
New England bard. He was born at Taunton, Massachusetts, 
on the 9th of December, 1773, and was the second son of Robert Treat 
Paine, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He 



ROBERT TREAT PAINE. 



441 




^^ ^ ■ 



was named Thomas,' but on the death of his eldest and unmar- 
ried brother, Robert Treat, in 1798, he assumed his name, and had 
Ids choice legally confirmed by an act of the legislature, in 1801. 
Paine was educated at Harvard, where his poetic genius was early 
developed.^ He was intended for the profession of tbe law, but soon 
after leaving college he became a merchant's clerk. He was quite 
ii-regular in his habits, and became greatly enamored of tlie theater. 
He obtained a medal for a prologue, spolien at the opening of the 
new theater in Bo.^ton, in 1793;-^ and the following year he assumed 
the editorial control of a newspaper called the Federril Orerry. It 
was an unsuccessful enterprise, for the editor was idle, and it ex- 
pired for want of proper food, m 1796. Paine had married the 



1. 1 have given his signature, written before the death of his brother. 

2. A class-mate abused him, in rhyme, upon the college wall. Youngr Paine had never 
written a line of poetry, but instantly resolved to answer his antagonist in nieier, and did so. 
To tliat circamstance he attributed Ms attention to rhyme. When he was graduated, in 179a, 
he delivered a poem. 

3. The t'edeial Street Theater, yet (1855) devoted t > the diama. U was destroyed by fire, ir 
1798, and rebuilt on a larger scale, in the aatunia of tliat year. 



442 BENJAISIIN STLLIMAN. 



beautiful daug-hter of an actor, the year before, which offended his 
father, and an alienation ensued. The young hidy proved an excel- 
lent wife, and was an angel at his side when intemperance clouded 
his mind and beggared his family. 

In 1795, Mr. Paine delivered a poem at Cambridge, entitled Inr na- 
tion of Letters, for which he received from the book-seller ,^1500. 
Two years afterward, his i^w^iV^^ Pa i^^/c?z brought him $1200; and his 
Addins and Liberty, written in 1798. at the request of the Massachu- 
setts Charitable Fire Societ}', yielded him $750, or more than $11 a lii:e ' 
Mr. Paine was appointed master of ceremonies at the theater, wiih a 
salary, and that connection threatened his health and reputation with 
shipwreck. A happy change soon occurred. He abandoned dissi- 
pation, and, on the solicitation of friends, he left the theater, moved, 
with his family, to Newbuiyport, entered the law-office of Judge 
Parsons, became a practitioner, enjoyed reconciliation with Ids 
father, and gave his friends gi-eat hopes. In 1803, when fortune and 
bright character were within his grasp, he was again allured to the 
theater, its associations and its habits, and he fell to rise no more. 
He neglected business, became intempeiate, and died in wretched' 
ness, on the 14th of November, 1811, when in the thirty -eighth year 
of his age. It was a sad evening of life, in contrast with the 
pvomises'of the brilliant morning. His career is a warning to the 
gifted to avoid the perils of inordinate indulgence of passions and 
pleasures, for no intellect is so strong that it may not be bowed in 
degradation. 



THE founder of The American Journal of Science and Art (better 
known in America and Europe as Sillimau's Journal), and one of the 
first American lecturers before miscellaneous audiences on scientific 
subjects, was Benjannn Silliman, a native of North Stratford (near 
Trumbull), Conn., where he was born August 8, 1779. He gradu- 
ated at Yale College in 1796, was appointed a tutor there in 1779, 
and having prepared himself by study, was admitted to the bar 
in 1802. The same year he accepted the new^ chair of chemistry in 
Yale College, and studied two years with Dr. Woodhouse, in Pliila- 
delphia. His first full course of lectures were given at Yale in 1805. 
Then he sailed for Europe, and was gone fourteen months. On his 
return he made a partial geological survey of Connecticut. In 1810 

1. Never was a political song more popular, or more widely sung, than this. Paine sho-.ved 
the verses to .\Ir. Russell, editor cf the Bosiun Ccntinel. It was in the midst of company at Mr. 
Russell's Tioi e. Paine was about to take a glass of wine, when his host -aid, " You have 
said nothing about Washington ; you cannot drink until you have added a verse m his 
honor." The poet paced the room a few moments, and then, calling for pen and ink, wn-ote 
with great rap dity : 

" Should the tempest of war overshadow our land, 
Its bolts would ne'er rend Freedom'.s temple asunder ; 
For, unmoved, at its portal would Wa.shington stand. 
And repulse, with his breast, the assaults of the thunder ! 
His sword from the sleep 
Of its scabbard would leap. 
And conduct, with its point, every flash to the deep !" 



JARED SPARKS. 443 



he published a Journal of TramU in England, Holland, and Scot- 
land in 1805-6. He examined a meteorite lately fallen in Connecti- 
cut, made a chemical analysis of it, and published the earliest and best 
authenticated account of the fall of a meteorite in America. In 
1813 Prof. Silliman published an account of the compound blow- 
pipe of Dr. R<:>bert Hare, and experiments with it, by which the list 
of known fusible bodies was greatly extended. In 1818 he founded 
the American Journal of Science and Arts, of which he was twenty 
years sole editor, and for eight years longer senior editor. His 
account of a Journey from Hartford to Quebec, published in 1828, 
is an interesting and valuable book of travel by a keen observer. It 
was between 1831 and 1840 that Prof. Silliman gave his scien- 
tific lectures to miscellaneous audiences in most of the principal 
cities of the United States; and in 1851 lie made a second visit to 
Europe. At the age of seventy-four years he resigned his position 
in Yale College, having filled the chair of chemistry fifty-one con- 
secutive years. Then he was made emeritus professor, and by re- 
quest of his colleagues continued his lectures in geology until June, 
1855, when he closed his active professional life. He was pre-emi- 
nent as a leader, and he had few equals as an interesting lecturer, for 
])is soul was filled with his subject. A late writer speaks of Prof. 
Silliman as "a finished gentleman, and a social favorite; his per- 
son was commanding, his manner dignified and affable, and his gen- 
eral traits of character such as to win universal respect and admira- 
tion." Prof. Silliman died on Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 24), 1864, 
at the age of eighty-five years. 



ANEof the most accomplished, painstaking, and industrious Ameri- 
1/ can scholars was Jared Sparks, whose carefully arranged collec- 
tions of historical and biographical materials for the use of historians 
of the American people, has won for him the grateful benedictions 
of his couti'rymen. He was born at Williugton, Conn., May 10, 
1789. He graduated at Harvard College in 18i5, studied theology at 
Cambridge two years, and was a tutor in the college awhile, teach- 
ing mathematics and natural philosophy. Soon after his graduation 
he became one of an association that conducted the North American 
Review. In 1819 Mr. Sparks was ordained as minister of a Unitarian 
congregation in Baltimore, and in 1821 was chosen chaplain of the 
United States House of Representatives. The same year he estab- 
lished The Unitarian Miscellany, which he conducted for about two 
years. Having prescribed for himself a course of historical studv and 
labor, he made extensive researches in this country, and in 1828 he 
went to Europe, where, in the public ofiSces in London and Paris, he 
transcribed a large number of documents relating to American his- 
tory. On his return he undercook the editing of the writings of 
George Washington, the materials having been placed in his hands 



444 STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS. 



by the family of Judge Bush rod Wathington (to whom the Mount 
Yernon estate had descended) and others. These, with a life of 
the patiiot, and fully annotated, were published in tAvelve octavo 
volumes in 1834-37. He had resigned his pastoral charge on account 
of impaired health in 1823, returned to Boston, and purchased the 
North American RevieiD, of which he was editor seven years. 

During his preparation of the Washington writings, Mr. Sparks 
edited and published (1829-30) The Diplomatic Correspondence oj 
tie Bevolution, in twelve octavo volumes. In 1832 appeared his 
Life of Gouverneur Morris, in three volumes. He had established The 
American Almanac in 1830. and edited the tirst volume. From 1834 to 
1838 he edited ten volumes, 18mo, of the Library of American Biog- 
raphy, and from 1844 to 1848 he edited a second series of such biog- 
raphies in fifteen volumes, same size. In 1840 he completed the 
publication of The Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin, in ten 
volumes. He afterward made a second visit to Europe. 

In the task of editing the writings of Washington, Mr. Sparks 
took the liberty of making a few alterations in phrases which had 
been used by Washington in his private correspondence not intended 
for the public eye, such as "General Putnam" for "Old Put," a 
common appellation of the veteran officer. This was severely criti- 
cised by Lord Mahon, which drew from Mr. Sparks, in 1852, two 
pamphlets in defense of his mode of editing the writings of Washing- 
ton. In 1854 he edited and published Correspondence of the Ameri- 
can Revohition. consisting of letters written to Washington from the 
time of his taking command of the Continental army, in July, 1775, 
until the end of his presidenc}'-, in the spring of 1797. They were 
edited from original manuscripts, and published in four volumes 
octavo. Mr. Sparks was McLean professor of history at Harvard 
college for ten years from 1839, and from 1849 to 1853 he was presi- 
dent of tliat institution. Mr. Sparks's first literary venture was the 
publication of Letters on the Ministry, Bitval, and Doctrine of the 
Protestant Episcopal Church, in 1820, when he was twenty-one years 
of age. 



STEFHEIS- J^THSiOT^Ty 3DOXJGIL.AS. 

SHORT, thickset, and muscular in person, and strong in intellect, 
- Stephen A.Douglas received the familiar appellaUon of "The 
Little Giant." For many years he held a very conspicuous place in 
♦lie political history of the republic. His family were of Scotch 
descent. His grandfather was a soldier in the old war for American 
independence, and his father was a skillful physician, who died sud- 
denly of heart disease while holding his infant son (the subject of the 
/Sketch), then only two months old, in his arms. Steplien was born 
in Brandon, Rutland county, Vt., on April 23, 1813; received a 
common-school education, and desired to enter college, but the 
pecuniary condition of his family would not permit it. At the age 
of fifteen years he apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker. At the 



MATTHEW VASSAR. 445 



end of eighteen months his health became impaired, and he began the 
study of law, and at the same time pursued his academic studies. 
In 1833 he settled in Jacksonville, 111., where he taught school and 
continued his legal studies. Admitted to the bar in 1834, he soon 
acquired a lucrative practice; and he was elected attorney-general of 
the state before he was twenty-two years of age. In 1837 President 
Van Bureu appointed him register of the land office at Springfield, 
111., and he was a democratic candidate for congress the same 
year In 1-840 he was chosen secretary of the state of Illinois, and 
the following year, at the age of twenty-eight years, he was elected 
a judge of the supreme court. From 1842 lo 1848 he occupied a seat 
in congress by successive elections. In the latter years he was chosen 
United States Senator, and was twice re-elected, and he held the office 
until his death. In both houses of congress, Mr. Douglas was an 
acknowledged democratic leader, being a sound, ready, and fluent 
debater. In 1854 he introduced the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which 
would violate the Missouri compromise, and he strongly advocated 
leaving the question of slavery in these territories to the expressed 
will of the people, a doctrine called "squatter sovereignty." The 
bill was carried through in the face of strong opposition. 

Mr. Douglas was a rival candidate to Mr. Buchanan for the demo- 
cratic nomination for president of the United States in 1856. The 
latter was nominated. He was a prominent candidate before the 
democratic convention held in Charleston in 1860. There were two 
candidates before the convention. John C. Breckenridge was the 
choice of the southern democrats, and Mr. Douglas of the northern 
democrats. There was a split in the convention — many of the 
southern members seceding and forming a separate convention. The 
southern democrats opposed Mr. Douglas because he would not 
coalesce with them in efforts to maintain slavery. Douglas and 
Breckenridge were both defeated by Abraham Lincoln, therepubli- 
can candidate for president, though Douglas received a large popu- 
lar vote — within about 500,000 as many as Mr. Lincoln. Soon after 
that election the southern politicians led the people of several slave- 
labor states into open insurrection against the national government. 
Then the voice of Mr. Douglas was heard in earnest pleas for the 
union, and this was the burden of his last words at his death, which 
occurred on June 3, 1861, when insurrection had assumed the dignity 
of civil war 



ON the 28th of February, 1861, twenty-eight gentlemen were assem- 
bled in the parlor of the (then) " Gregory House," at Poughkeep- 
sie onthe Hudson, and received from Matthew Vassar, a resident of 
that city from his youth, a casket containing securities of various 
kinds, to the value of $408,000, in trust, for the establishment of a col- 
lege for the higher education of women. Standing by a table on which 
was placed tlie casket, and with the key iu liis open palm, he thus 



446 MATTHEW VASSAK. 



concluded a brief address: "And now, gentlemen of the board of 
trustees, I transfer to your possession, and ownership the real and 
personal property which I have set apart for the accomplishment of 
my designs," Who shall estimate the importance or measure the 
significance of that act? 

Matthew Vassar was born in Norfolk county, England, on xVpvil 
29, 1792, and came to America with his parents and uncle when he 
was five years of age. Tliey bought a farm near Poughkeepsie, 
where they planted Uie first barley ever cultivated in that region. 
With tliis they made excellent home-brewed ale for family use and 
for sale. James, the father of Matthew, afterwards became a brewer 
in Poughkeepsie, for which the son had no taste. He was about to be 
a(3prenticed to a tanner, when the lad, adverse to the arrangement, 
started out in the world clandestinely to find employment. After an 
absence of four years, he entered his father's establishment as a clerk. 
James Vassar was unfortunate in business, when Matthew began brew- 
ing ale on liis own account, at first making three barrels at a time and 
peddling it in Poughkeepsie. It finally expanded into a large and 
profitable business, and after pursuing it for about fifty j^ears, and 
accumulating a large fortune, he retired. 

In 1845 Mr. Vassar and his wife spent several months traveling in 
Europe. Visiting Guy's Hospital, in London, an institution founded 
by a kinsman of his, JNIr. Vassar, who was childless, resolved to 
devote a large portion of his fortune, in his life-time, to some benev- 
olent object. In the course of a few years his wife died, and he 
resolved in his mind several projects for the disposition of his large 
estate. Finally, at the suggestion of his niece, Miss Lj^dia Booth, 
then principal of a young ladies' seminary at Poughkeepsie, he con- 
cluded to erect buildings and endow a college for young women. 
He obtained an act of incorporation in January, 1861, and in Feb- 
ruary following, a board of trustees, consisting of twenty-eight 
gentlemen of different religious denominations, was organized, and 
the sum of $408,000 was^ placed in their hands to carry on the 
work. The site was selected, and on the 4th of June, the same 
3^ear, Mr. Vassar, with his own hands, cut out the first spadeful 
of earth in preparation for the foundation of the building. It was 
completed in the early summer of 1865, a president and faculty 
were selected, and it was first opened on the 20th of September, the 
same year, with nearly three hundred and fifty students. Mr. Vassar 
spent $20,000 in furnishing an art gallery for educational purposes, 
and in his will bequeathed to the institut'ion $150,000 iii three sepa- 
rate and equal sums, the interest of each to be appropriated for a 
special purpose, namely, for assisting deserving pupils who may have 
become pecuniarily disabled, to complete the college course; for ihe 
increase of the library and to advance the usefulness of the philosoph- 
ical cabinets and apparatus; and for an annual course of lectures. Mr. 
Vassar's entire gifts to the institution amounted to about $800,000. 
He lived to see his great enterprise pass beyond the boundaries of an 
experiment, to a position of assured success. Up to the last moment 
of his life, he labored incessantly in its behalf. At the annual meet- 
ing of the board of trustees, on June 26, 1868, while he was reading, 
as usual, his annual address to that body, his manuscript was seen 
to drop suddenly from his hands, for a stroke of paralysis with whicb 



FRANKLIN PIERCE. 44T 



lie had been for some time menaced had violently deprived him of 
life, and his inanimate form was caught in the arms of the writer of 
this article, a member of the board of trustees. 

Vassar College, with its buildings in the midst of a farm of 200 
acres, on which is a spring lake that furnishes the institution 
with an abundance of pure water the year round, and a means 
for skating in the winter and boating in the summer; its competent 
faculty, and its ample supply of pupils, who have the advantages of 
an art school, rich cabinets of natural history, a chemical laboratory, 
presented by the two nephews of the founder, and a library of about 
14,000 volumes, is Matthew Vassar's best and most enduring monu- 
ment. It is the first college for the higher education of women 
established on the earth. In every particular Vassar College has 
remained absolutely unsectarian, but thoroughly religious in its 
moral teachings and political influence. This character it was the 
earnest desire of the founder should be maintained. In one of his 
annual communic-itions he said: "All sectarian influences should be 
carefully excluded; but the training of our students should never be 
intrusted to the skeptical, the irreligious or immoral." 



IN another part of this work (page 283) may be found a sketch of 
the life of Gen. Benjamin Pierce, a soldier of the revolution, and 
father of the fourteenth president of the United States. That dis- 
tinguished son was born at Hillsborough, N. H., on the 23d of Novem- 
ber. 1804, and graduated at Bowdoin College in Maine in 1824. 
Choosing the profession of the law as a life vocation, he studied 
TUider Levi Woodbury, a distinguished statesman and cabinet officer 
under president Jackson, He was admitted to the bar in 1827, and 
began the practice of his profession in his native town. His father 
was an earnest democratic politician, and young Pierce, imbibing 
from him a taste for political life, became active in local politics 
and was elected to a seat in the New Hampshire legislature, where he 
served four years with so much ability that, in 1833, he was chosen 
to represent his district in congress. He was then twenty-nine years 
of age. The following year he married a daughter of the Rev. Jesse 
Appletou. Mr. Pierce remained in the house of representatives until 
1837, when, by the choice of his legislature, he was transferred to 
the senate of the United States, at the beginning of the administra- 
tion of Martin Van Buren. He there found himself among the ablest 
statesmen of the country— Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Benton, and 
Wright. 

In 1838 Senator Pierce removed to Concord, N. H., where he rose 
to high rank as a lawyer. He remained in congress until 1842, when, 
on the accession of President Polk, he was offered the position of 
attorney-general of the United States, which Mr. Pierce declined, as 
well as the nomination by the democratic party for governor of New 



448 THOMAS HART BENTON. 



Hampshire at about the same time. Mr. Pierce was a warm sup- 
porter of the measure of the annexation of Texas; and when, in 
consequence, a war with Mexico occurred, he was made colonel of 
United States infantry, but was soon appointed brigadier-general, 
leading a large reinforcement for Gen. Scott. In August, 1847, 
just before the battle of Churubusco. he was severely injured by the 
falling of his horse upon his leg. When he returned to Concord at 
the close of the war. Gen. Pierce was received with enihusinsm 
by his neighbors and friends, and in recognition of his public servicf s 
in the field, the legislature of New Hampshire presented to him a 
sword. Chosen a member of the New Hampshire constitutional 
convention in 1850-51, he was made its president, and at the demo- 
cratic national committee which convened at Bnltimore in June, 
1853, he was nominated for the presidency of the United States. 
Gen. Winfield Scott \v;is his whig competitor in the ensuing canvass. 
Gen. Pierce received 250 electoral votes, and Gen. Scott only 42. In 
the midst of a storm of sleet, he was inaugurated at the east front 
of the Capitol in the presence of a vast concourse of people, on March 
4, 1853. In his inaugural address he denounced the agitation of the 
slavery question; and it was during his administration that the agita- 
tion became more exciting than ever because of the violation of the 
Missouri compromise by Uie Kansas-Nebraska act, which permitted 
slaves to be held in those territories, provided a popular vote should 
sanction it. The efforts to make Kansas a slave-labor state ensued, 
and a civil war there during a part of Pierce's and Buchanan's admin- 
istration was theconsequence. 

President Pierce exerted his influence to promote the interests and 
designs of the slave power in Kansas and elsewhere. He ordered the 
conference of United States ministers in Europe upon the subject of 
the annexation of Cuba to the United States, which resulted in the 
promulgation of the infamous " Ostend Manifesto." Late in Janu- 
ary, 1856, President Pierce sent a message to congress representing 
the formation of a free-state government in Kansas as rebellious. 
The contest in Kansas between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery set- 
tlers in Kansas was raging fiercely when his term of office expired, 
and he was succeeded byJames Buchanan, who "followed in the 
footsteps of his illustrious predecessor." Soon after he left the 
presidential chair Gen. Pierce made quite an extended tour in 
Europe. When the late civil war broke out, he sympathized with the 
enemies of his country, by which he lost the esteem of his loyal 
personal friends. These were many, for Gen. Pierce was one of 
the most genial of companions and kindest of neighbors. He died 
at his home in Concord on the 8tli of October, 1809. 



FOR thirty years Thomas H. Benton occupied a seat in the senate 
of the United Stales, where his indomitable energy, iron will, 
industry, and self-reliance placed him in the front rank with Webster, 



THOMAS HART BENTOK 449 



Calhoun, Clay, and Cass. He was bora near Hillsborough, N. C, 
March 14, 1782; began his education at a grammar school, and was 
completing it at Chapel Hill university, when he removed to Ten- 
nessee. There he studied law and soon rose to eminence in his pro- 
fession, after beginning its practice at Nasiwillc in 1811. He was 
elected a member of the legislature, where he procured the passage 
of a law which gave the slaves the right of trial by jury. At about 
that time Andrew Jackson was major-general of thestate militia, and 
Benton, becoming his aid-de-camp, a close intimac)-' was formed 
between them. This was terminated by a personal encounter with 
pistols and daggers in the streets of Nashville, in which Jackson was 
severely w^ounded. 

When the war of 1812 had fairly begun, Benton was made colonel 
of a Tennessee regiment, and afterwards Ijecame lieutenant-colonel 
of United States infantry, with which he served until the close of the 
war. He had then made his residence in St. Louis, Mo. (1813), 
and at the close of the war established the Missouri Inquirer. Ho 
took an active part in the struggle for the admission of Missouri into 
the union, and was one of that new state's tirst rej)resentatives in the 
United States Senate, at which post he remained, by successive 
re-election for thirty years consecutively, much of the time an 
acknowledged leader. He was opposed to the administration of John 
Quincy Adams, but warmly supported that of Jackson, with whom 
he had long been on friendly terms. He was also a political friend 
of Van Buren. He was among the foremost who advocated the con- 
struction of a railroad across the continent to the Pacific. The 
untiring guardian of the west, he did much to open and protect the 
trade with New Mexico, to establish military stations on the Mis- 
souri river, to establish friendly relations with the Indians, and to 
build up the commerce on the great lakes. His persistent advocacy of 
a specie currency obtained for him the nickname of " Old Bullion." 
The senate having passed a resolution censuring President Jackson 
for his removal of the government money from the United States 
bank, Mr. Benton procured the passage of a resolution ordering the 
expunging of that record from the journal of the senate. Mr. Benton 
took an active part in the debates in the senate concerning the dis- 
puted boundary between the United States and British possessions, 
and caused the adoption of the 49th parallel as the boundary. He 
gave his influence in support of the war with Mexico. The com- 
promise acts of 1850, which, it was supposed, would settle the slavery 
agitation, he opposed, especially the fugitive slave la^^^ Mr. Benton 
warmly opposed " nullification" sentiments whenever expressed, for 
he was an earnest supporter of the national government as supreme, 
and his known opposition to the extension of the slave system caused 
his defeat in the Missouri legislature as a candidate for the United 
States Senate. Thus in defense of human rights ended his thirty 
years' career in the upper house of the national legislature by the 
frown of an increasing and overbearing oligarchy. But two years 
later he was elected by the people of Missouri to a seat in the house 
of representatives, where he was an able opposer of the Kansas- 
Nebraska act as a violation of the Missouri compromise. This course 
arrayed against him the pro-slavery leaders in Missouri, and being a 
candidate for I'c-eleclion in 1854, he was defeated. In 1856 he was 



460 FirZ-GREENE HALLECK. 



a candidate for the office of governt)r of Missouri, and made a strong 
personal canvass, but was defeated, when he iinally retired from the 
public service. He gave his support to James Buchanan, the demo- 
cratic candidate for president in 1856, against John C. Fremont, his 
son-in-law. 

The short remainder of Mr. Benton's life, after he retired from 1 he 
public service, was devoted to literary pursuits. In two bulky 
volumes, entitled Thirty Years' Vieic; or a History of the Working 
of the Anurican Government for Thirty Tears, from 1820 to 1850, he 
gave an account of his political experiences and of the most promi- 
nent proceedings of the national legislature during that period, a 
task which his personal connection with the events noticed specially 
qualified him for. It contained his best speeches, and much matter 
which displayed the warmth of his attachment to political and per- 
sonal friends. The work was exceedingly popular, more than 60,000 
volumes being sold as soon as published. When the first volume 
was completed, and while he was preparing the second volume, his 
books and manuscripts were destroyed by fire. He immediately 
reproduced the lost manuscript, and when this work was completed 
he began another, entitled Abridgment of the Debates of Congress 
from 1789 to 1850, which, when completed, composed fifteen octavo 
volumes. On this work he labored incessantly during the last years of 
liis life. The latter portions of it he dictated while on his death- 
bed, when he could not speak above a whisper. It was completed 
down to the close of the debate in the compromise bill in the autumn 
of 1850. His work finished, Mr. Benton's spirit calmly passed into 
the world of immortals on the 10th of April, 1858. He died in 
Washington city. In jierson Mr. Benton was short and stout, ids 
head was large and grandly proportioned; he had a Roman nose, 
and Ills gray eyes w^ere expressive of remarkable intelligence. 



iniTZ-G^REElSrE HALLECK. 

THE author of Marco Bozzaris (the best known of his poems 
1 among the people) cannot rank with the great American poets, but 
ho is a conspicuous figure among the minor poets of the republic. He 
was born at Guilford, Conn., July 8, 1790, and was a lineal descend- 
ant of John Eliot, the "Apostle to the Indians." In his native 
town he received a good academic education, and at the age of 
twenty-one he entered the service of Jacob Barker, a banker in New 
York. Afterwards he became bookkeeper m John Jacob Astor's 
private office, and was associated with him in his business affairs as 
confidential clerk about sixteen years. 

Mr. Halleck began to write verses in his boyhood, but his first 
poem, in the collected edition to " Twilight," appeared in tlie New 
York Evening Post m 1819. The next year he formed a literary 
partnership with Joseph Rodman Drake, m the production of the 
Orodker papers— poetical squibs— published in the Evening Post; 



FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. 



451 




and in the same year appeared his Fanny, a satire on the fashions, 
follies, and public characters of the day. It was his longest poem, 
Drake died in 1820, and Halleck commemorated the event in a 
touching poem, in which appeared the often quoted lines — 

" Green be the turf above thee, 
Friend of my better days ! 
None knew thee but to love thee, 
None named thee but to praise." 

A second and enlarged edition of Fanny appeared in 1821. The 
original was written in the space of three weeks from its commence- 
ment and was very popular. Mr. Halleck made a tour in Europe in 
1822-23, and in 1827 he published a collection of his poems, anony- 
mously, in which were embodied his AlniDick Castle and Burns, 
which had been inspired by a visit to the home of the Scotch poet. 
They had first appeared in the New York Review and United States 
Review, edited by Mr. Bryant. His Marco Bozarris first appeared 
in the latter. 

Mr. Halleck was one of the original trustees of the Astor Library. 
Having " been made rich with forty pounds a year," or an annuity 
of |200, secured to him by tlie will of the wealthy merchant (Mr. 
Astor) whom he served so long and faithfully at a very moderate 



452 WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS. 



salary, Mr. Halleck retired to Guilford, and resided with a sister 
who, like himself, remained unmarried. Devotion to business seemed 
to have subordinated to it literary compositions, and fov many years 
notliing appeared from his pen 'in the form of a poem. In 1832 he 
prepared an edition of Byron's works with notes and a memoir, and 
in 1840 he compiled two volumes of Selections from the British Poets. 
He was silent until January, 1864, when he published in the New 
York Ledger a poem of about three hundred lines on Young America. 
Mr. Halleck ^.ied at Guilford, Nov. 17, 1867, and at the head of 
his grave a handsome obelisk was erected to his memory. There is 
also a statue of him, in bronze, in the Ceuiral Park, New York. 



TVILLIAM: GMI^l^LOI^E SIMIVTS. 

AMONG the literary men of our country no one was a more Indus 
trious and prolific writer than William Gilmore Simms, of South 
Carolina. He was born in Charleston, on April 17, 1806. In youth 
he was a clerk in a drug-store in that city, but very early exhibited a 
taste and genius for literature. He began the study of law at the 
age of eighteen, and was adraitted to the bar in 1827, He never 
practiced his profession much, but devoted himself almost wholly to 
literary pursuits. In 1828 he became editor and part proprietor of 
the Charleston City Gazette, and continued in that position until 1832, 
opposing "nullification" with vigor. This opposition, in face of the 
general public opinion in South Qarolina, reduced him to poverty, 
when he gave his whole time to writing books. He wrote prose and 
poetry with equal facility. His first publications were vohnnes of 
poems; his prose writings were mostly works of fiction, of which the 
first that appeared was The Book of my Lady, issued in 1833. In 
1864 a collected editio^i of his poems was published; and in 1867 he 
edited a collection of war poems by southern writers. Mr. Simms 
also wrote dramas, biographies, and histories. Among the biographies 
were lives of General Marion, Captain John Smith, General Greene, 
and the Chevalier Bayard. He wrote a small History of South 
Carolina for the use of schools, also a Geography of South Caro- 
lina. He also edited, with notes, the seven dramas ascribed to 
Shakespeare but not published among his works. He called the 
collection A Supi)lement to Shakespeare's Plays. 

Mr. Simms, while devoted to the Union, was an advocate of the 
slave System, and Avliile the agitation in the public mind both north 
and south w^as constantly increasing, he, as a distinguished literary 
man, received invitations from northern lyceums to lecture, sufficient 
to insure him a profitable winter course; but so offended the cultivated 
citizens of New York city, where he gave his discourse first, by his 
strictures on the anti-slavery sentiment of the northern people, that 
he was compelled to abandon the lecture campaign and return home. 
The people showed their indignation, not by any violent act oi 
ppeech, but by quietly staying away from his lectures. After repeat' 



SAMUEL HOUSTON. 453 



in;r it two or three times, he perceived the drift of public sentiment, 
and relired. During the civil war that soon afterwards ensued, 
Mr. Siuiins appeared somewhat conspicuous in public life in South 
Cariiiii;;, fully sympathizing with the revolutionists of his state. 

i\[r. Simras was possessed of a kindly nature, but was somewliat 
imperious in his deportment. When the war was over he was 
cordially received by his old friends in the north. A selected edi- 
tion of ills novels was published in New York in 1865 in seventeen 
volumes. He died in Charleston, June 11, 1870. 



SAMIXJEIL H:0UST01^^. 

THE commander-in chief of troops in Texas which gained the 
independence of that territor}^ and was the first president of 
that commonwealth, was a remarkable man, whose life was marked 
by a series of adventures almost romantic. Samuel Houston was 
born near Lexington, Va., March 2, 1793. He received a good 
common-school education. On the death of his father when he was 
fourteen years of age, his mother, with six sous and three daughters, 
removed to East Tennessee, on the borders of the Cherokee country. 
Dissatisfied with the situation of clerk in a country store, he 
absconded to the Cherokees and dwelt among them about three 
years. Returning he opened a school, and in" 1813 enlisted as a 
private soldier in the contest of the war of 1812-15. He served 
under Gen. Jackson against the Creek Indians and in the battle 
of New Orleans, rising to the grade of lieutenant. In 1818 he 
resigned his commission, studied law in Nashville, and, after six 
months, was admitted to the bar, and entered upon practice in a 
country town. After holding some minor otfices he was elected to 
congi-ess in 1823. He served two terms and was chosen governor of 
Tennessee in 1827. Two years later he was married, and three 
months afterwards he separated from his wife, resigned his office, 
and joined the Cherokees, then in the region west of Arkansas, 
where he became a citizen among them and was chosen to be a chief. 

Houston took measures to defend the Cherokees against frauds 
practiced by government agents, and these men andlheir friends 
became his bitter enemies, which led to a series of legal and personal 
conflicts. After gaining a victory for his cause at "Washington, lie 
returned to his wigwam, and in Dec, 1832, went to Texas, "where a 
revolutionary movement was organizing against Mexico. A member 
of a constitutional convention in that province in 1833, which was 
rejected by Santa Anna, president of Mexico, Houston was chosen 
commander-in-chief of the revolutionary forces. He ably conducted 
the war for independence which ensued, and gained a final victory 
at the battle of San Jacinto in April, 1836, when the Mexican army, 
led by Santa Anna in person, was completely routed and its leader 
made prisoner. Houston was sevei-ely wounded in the battle. 

The Republic of Texas was organized in the fall of 1836, by the 



454 WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 



inauguration of Houston as president. He was re-elected in 1«41 
and favored tlie scheme of annexing Texas to the United States. After 
the annexation in 1845, Houston was one of the tirst United States 
senators, and, true to his early friends the Indians, he was ever their 
advocate and defender. He remained in the senate until 1859, when 
he was elected governor of Texas. He persistently opposed secession 
in 1861. Finding- opposition to be useless, and wearied witli the 
popular clamor for an extraordinary session of tlie Texas legislature, 
which he steadily refused to call. Governor Houston retired to private 
life, refusing to take the oath required by the secession convention 
of Texas. 

Governor Houston was six feet in heiglit and perfectly propor- 
tioned; slow of speech and always kindly in manner; his face was 
expressive of great intelligence and tirmness of will, and he was a 
ready and impressive debater. The writer remembers seeing him 
when he first appeared in Washington as senator, attracting the atten- 
tion of everybody as his commanding figure appeared in Pennsyl- 
vania avenue, moving with military juvcision, while a bright scarlet 
Mexican light blanket cast jauntily over his slioulders made him a 
conspicuous object in the street. 



tn^illiam: iiickli:s^& 3?r,escott. 

n"^HE accomplished historian, William H. Prescott, **w\as tall and 
-L slender, with afresh and florid complexion, and lively, graceful 
manners," says a late writer. He rose early, clothed himself accord- 
ing to tlie weather indicated b}^ the thermometer, his clothes being 
marked with their weight in pounds and ounces, and walked five 
miles each day in the open air, or, if the weather was stormy, in his 
house. Mr. Prescott was born in Salem, Mass., May 4, 1796, and 
graduated at Haivard College in 1814. He had removed with his 
family to Boston when he was twelve years of age. In the last year 
of his life at Harvard, a classmate playfully threw a crust of bread 
which struck one of his e3^es, and nearly deprived it of sight. 
Excessive use of the other eye produced an inflammation which 
deprived him of sight several weeks. Then he could read for several 
hours at a time, but finally was compelled to give up reading more 
than a few moments at a lime. During the last half of his life this 
was the case. He employed a reader, and wrote with an instrument 
used by the totally blind. 

Mr. Prescott traveled in Europe, lingering some time in Italy, and 
at the end of tvco years returned to Boston, married, and settled in 
his father's family. He determined to devote ten years to the study 
of ancient and modern history, and to give the next ten years to the 
composition of a history. He studied the French and Italian litera- 
ture for the purpose of writing a history of Italian literature. This 
design he abandoned, began to study Spanish in 1825, and selected 
as a subject for his first historical v.ork the reign of Ferdinand and 



GEORGE PEABODY. 455 



Isabella. At a very a-reat expense he made a large collection of 
materials, much of it 'unedited manuscripts. With a patient reader 
and the use of the writing contrivance for the blind, his Hliitory of Fer- 
dinand and ImbeWi was ''made ready for the press and was published 
in 1837 in Boston and London. It was immediately translated into 
tiie Spanish, German, and French languages, and the Royal Academy 
of History at Madrid elected Mr. Prescott a corresponding member. 
He devoted six years of labor to the History of the Conquest of Mexico, 
three volumes, and four to the Conquest of Peru, two volumes 
The latter was published in 1847. These works were received with 
the greatest favor in all civilized countries. Mr. Prescott was made 
a corresponding member of the Institute of France. In 1840 Columbia 
College, New York, conferred on him the degree of ll.d., and in 
1843 Harvard College gave liim the same degree. After his return from 
a short visit in Enronc in ISoO, he began the preparation of a history 
of the reign of PhiJi]) II., intending to make the entire work com- 
prise six volum-ds. The first two volumes appeared in 1855, and the 
third in 1868. Early in Feb. that year he experienced a slight shock 
of paralysis. He soon recovered, and resumed his literary labors. 
Within a few days of a year afterwards, Jan. 28, 1859, while at work 
with his secretary in his study, he suddenly became speechless, and 
died about an hour afterwards, leaving his last great historical work 
unfinished. He resided part of the year in Boston and part in the 
country. He kept the account of his daily expenditures with great 
exactness, and one tenth of his income was always devoted to charity. 
At his residence in Boston he had collected one of the finest private 
libraries in the country. 



A NOTABLE moral phenomenon appeared in the history of the 
world toward the close of 1869. It was public homnge paid 
by royalty to a private citizen because of his practical sympathy 
with the poor of his race. The occasion was the funeral of George 
Peabody, a banker in London of American birth. 

Mr. Peabody was born in Dan vers, Mass., Feb. 18, 1795. After 
serving as a merchant's clerk in New England, he joined his uncle, 
Elisha Riggs, in carrying on a dry-goods house in Georgetown, D. C. 
The house was transferred to Baltimore, where, at the age of about 
twenty years, young Peabody and his uncle began the business of 
draper, under the firm name of Riggs & Peabody. the latter, even at 
that time, being recognized as a most sagacious business man. They 
were wonderfully successful, and established branch houses in 
Philadelphia and New York. Mr. Riggs retired in 1829, and Mr. 
Peabody continued the business under a new firm name. In 1837 he 
settled permanently in London, where, in 1843, he established the 
banking-house of George Peabody & Co. At the time of the. great 
commercial revulsion in America in 1837, Mr. Peabody, with great 



456 



GEORGE PEABODY. 




boldness and sagacity, patriotically sustained American credit by the 
free purchase of American securities, at a risk of losing his fortune. 
He was successful, and had performed an important public service 
for his country. KnoAvn in private life as a irencrous man, it was 
not until 1851, when his fortune was counted by millions, that he 
began to dispense public benefactions. He supplied the sum needed 
to arrange and display the contributions to the World's Fair in Lon- 
don. In 1852 he gave $10,000 toAvard the second Grinnell arctic 
expedition under Dr. Kane. Tlie snme year the citizens o.f his native 
town celebrated the two hundredth anniversary of its birth. Mr. 
Peabody could not accept an invitation to be present in person, but 
inclosed a "sentiment" in an envelope \vhich should not be opened 
until the name of George Peabody should be called at the banquet, 
among those of the invited guests. It was: "Education — a debt due 
from the present to future generations." In an accompanying note 
he said: "In acknowledgment of the payment of that debt by the 
generation that preceded me in my native town of Danvers, and to 
aid in its prompt future discharge, I give to the inhabitants of that 
town the sum of $20,000 for the promotion of knowledge and 
morality among them." 

Mr. Peabody visited his native country in 1857. Soon after his 



CHARLES SUMNER. 45Y 



arrival he i^ave to the city of Baltimore $300,000 for the founding of 
an institution of learnini,- in that city. To this sum he afterwards 
added $200,000, and in 1866 $500,000 more. On visiting this country 
aj,-.un in 1866 lie gave the institution $400,000 more, mal<.mg his total 
gd'ls for tlie endowment of tlie Peabody Institute $1,400,000. 
^ On his return to London in 1858, after his first visit, he set about 
the execution of a plan he had devised for the benefit of the poor of 
tiiat city, and he gave first the munificent sum of $750,000 for tlie 
purpose of erecting comfortable houses in which indigent deserving 
families might dwell at a very small rent. The queen acknowledged 
his generosity in an autograph letter, and sent him her portrait 
painted on ivory and set in jewels, valued at $25,000. Mr. Peabody's 
entire gifts for this noble purpose amounted to nearly $2,000,000. 
AVith this sum buildings have been erected suflicient to accommodate 
more than 6,000 persons On his return to London in 1867, the 
queen offered Mr. Peabody a baronetcy, which he declined. While 
in this country in 1866. he gave to Harvard College for a specific 
purpose $150,000; to Yale College $150,000; and gave for the pur- 
pose of promoting education in the southern states $2,100,000, 
increased in 1869 to $3,500,000, besides $200,000 for other purposes. 
He endowed an art school in Rome in 1868, and in 1869 he again 
visited the United States, when he distributed, in various benefac- 
tions among the educational institutions of the republic, $315,000. 
He left, at his death, mostly to his relatives, $5,000,000. Mr. Pea- 
body died within a month after his return to England. His death 
occurred on Nov. 4, 1869. His obsequies were celebrated in West- 
minster Abbey, and his remains were brought to the United States 
in the royal turret ship Monarch and buried at Danvers, since named 
Peabody. 







CHARLES STJMlNEPi. 

N the very day when Henry Clay left the senate of the United States 
forever, Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, took his seat in that 
body. The relative positions of these two statesmen in our national 
history show a marked difference between them. Clay is known in 
our history as the great compromiser; Sumner is known as one of the 
most uncompromising of men when dealing with great national, 
moral, and political subjects. Mr. Sumner was born at Boston, Jan. 
6, 1811, and after graduating at Hartford in 1830, he entered the law 
school of that university and was favored witli instruction by Judge 
Story. After entering upon tlie practice of his profession in 1834, he 
rose to eminence rapidly. He was appointed reporter of the circuit 
court, and lectured to the Cambridge law school until 1837, when he 
went to Europe and studied and traveled three years. On his return 
he resumed the practice of law, and first took an active part in politics 
in opposition to the annexation of Texas. He delivered a most elo- 
quent and able speech against the measure on July 4, 1845, in Faneuil 
hall, which was published under the title of the "True Grandeur of 



458 CHARLES SUMNER. 



Nations." This great speech gave him ji national, and even interna- 
tional reputation. He warmly supported Van Buren for president 
in 1848, who was the nominee of the free-soil party, and from that 
time he was closely identified with the anti-slavery movements. 

When in 1851, Daniel Webster resigned his seat in the senate, Mr. 
Sumner was chosen to fill his place. He opposed the fugitive slave 
law, declaring that "Freedom is national, and slavery is sectional." 
In 1856 he delivered a most effective speech in the senate, entitled 
"The Crime against Kansas." In that speech he did not spare the 
slave oligarchy. For this speech he was felled to the floor by a 
bludgeon wielded by Preston S. Brooks, a member of congress from 
South Carolina, who approached him stealthily from behind while 
writing at his desk, and alone, in the senate chamber, and struck 
liim on the head. Mr. Sumner was so severely injured that he was 
unable to resume his duties in the senate for three or four years, and 
never fairly recovered from the shock. On resuming his seat in 1860, 
his first speech was on the barbarism of slavery. He labored inces- 
santly for the salvation of the republic during the civil war which 
began in South Carolina at the close of 1860. He earl}^ proposed the 
emancipation of the slaves as the readiest means for ending the civil 
war. His proposition to treat each state in which insurrection and 
rebellion had reigned supreme during the civil war, as an unorganized 
domain, and to reconstruct those slates by organizing them as terri- 
tories, and afterwards re-admitting them as states, as other territories 
had been admitted into the union, conceded all that the secessionists 
claimed, namely, their power to secede. He soon abandoned that 
position as untenable. 

Mr. Sumner remained a member of the senate, by re-election, until 
his death, which occurred on Mar. 11, 1874. From 1861 to 1870 he 
was chairman of the senate committee on foreign affairs. Although 
his health was feeble for some time, Mr. Sumner's death was quite 
sudden. He appeared in the senate only the day before that sad 
event. He was buried in Mount Auburn cemetery, near Boston. "It 
is a pleasant spot on a little path just to one side of the main rond 
which runs from the chapel to the town," says a recent writer. " A 
great oak rises a little before you get to the grave, and throws a kindly 
shade over the statesman's resting-place. No magnificent monumental 
shaft with elaborate epitaphs marks the spot where the great senator 
sleeps, but a plain white tablet, only a foot or so in height, with the 
brief inscription: ' Charles Sumner, born Jan. 6, 1811 — died March 
11, 1874,' informs the stranger that he stands before the grave of a 
giant." 

Mr. Sumner, in his writings and speeches, exhibited great power 
of condensation. So early as 1831 he was the chief editor of Tlie 
American Jurist. He edited Dunlap on Admiralty, and prepared 
Circuit Court Reports for ten years, in three volumes, and with J. C. 
Perkins edited Vesey's Chancery Reports, twenty volumes. It is 
said he suggested to Mr. Wheaton his work on the Law of Nations; 
and wrote for Galignani's Messenger, a defense .of our north-east 
boundary claim. Many of his orations and speeches have been pub- 
Jished and widely read. 



WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 459 



i(> '"PHERE is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enchir- 
1 ing forces, and it means that the United States must and will, 
sooner or later, become either entirely a slave-liolding nation or entirely 
a free labor nation." Thus spake William H. Seward at Rochester In 
1858, after alluding to the constant collision between the systems of 
free and slave labor in the United States. Mr. Seward was then a ripe 
statesman. Hj was born r\ Florida, Orange county, N. Y., Ma}^ 16, 
1801, and there in after-years he endowed a seminary which bears the 
name of " Seward Institute." lie was graduated with distinction at 
Union College, Schenectady, in 1820. He taught school in Georgia 
six months, and then entered the law office of John Duer, of New 
York, as a student. He studied law under him, John Anthon, and 
Ogden Hoffman. Admitted to the bar, he began the practice of law 
at Auburn, in association with Judge Miller, whose daughter he 
m irried. 

Mr. Sjward began public official life in 1830, when he was twenty- 
nine years of age, as a state senator. From that time until his death 
he was conspicuous in the politics of New York and of the nation. 
He was a champion of the United States bank, and made an able 
speech in the New York S3nats in favor of that insiitutiou. In 1833 
he made a short tour in Europe, and the next year he was an unsuc- 
cessful whig candidate for governor of the state of New York; but 
lie was elected to that otfiee in 183S, and re-elected in 1840. During 
his official career in New York state. Mr. Seward was an advocate of 
all judicious progressive measures. In 1842 he resumed the practice 
of his profession, which soon became extensive and lucrative. Yet 
lie took a lively interest in the politics of the day; was an earnest 
supporter of Henry Clay for president in 1844, and of Gen. Taylor 
in 1848. He had opposed the annexation of Texas as a scheme for 
the extension of the area of slavery. 

The field of Mr. Sewaril's work as a statesman was enlarged in 
1849, when he was elected United States Senator by the legislature 
of New York, and opposed the compromise measures in 1850. He 
was re-elected in 1855, and held that position until 1861, when he 
was called to the cabinet of Mr. Lincoln, as secretary of state, in 
which he conducted the delicate and arduous duties connected with 
foreign affairs, during the whole of the civil war, with admirable 
ability and sagacity. He had been identified for many years with 
the opponents of slavery, and was regarded as one of the ablest 
champions for freedom. The civil war had been begun for the pur- 
pose of establishing an empire of which the cornei'-stone was to be 
slavery — an empire" built of the ruins of the republic. Upon this 
great and exciting topic Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward were united, 
and it was fortunate for the president and the country that such an 
able prime minister was at the head of the cabinet. Mr. Seward 
continued in that position through President Johnson's administra- 
tion. 

In the spring of 1865 Mr. Seward was thrown from his carriage, 
and while lying in his bed in a crippled state, he was attacked by a 
would-be assassin, and very severely wounded. It was ou the same 



460 SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE. 



night when the president was murdered (April 14, 1865). The shock 
giVen by the accident and this murderous attack impaired tlie able 
secretary's intellectual force, and, in dissonance v\'ith nearly the 
whole of the republican party, he sustained President Johnson in his 
opposition to the reoru-anization measures adopted by congress. Lnte 
in the summer of 1870 he began a tour around the world, Vvhicli lie 
accomplished, notwithstanding his feeble health. He was everywhere 
received with demonstrations of profound respect throughout his 
journey, and after his return home he superintended the preparation 
of a work entitled William H. SewarcVs Travels Around the World, 
The venerable statesman died at his home in Auburn, N. Y., Oct. 10, 
1872. 



sa.m:tjii:l fiis^ley bricitise lycoRSE. 

^i /^ANST thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto 
\J thee. Here we are?" said the Almighty to afflicted Job, who 
remained dumb, for lie could not answer. The question has been 
answered in the affirmative in our day by the perfecter of the electro- 
magnetic telegraph, the late Prof. Morse, by whose invention Puck's 
promise, "I'll put a girdle 'round the earth in forty minutes," has 
been performed. Mr. Morse was born in Charlestown, Mass., 
April 27, 1791. and w^as the first-born son of Rev. Jedediah Morse, 
the first American author of a geography. He graduated at Yale 
College in 1810, and in 1811 went to England under the care of 
Washington Allstou, the painter, and became a pupil in art of Ben- 
jamin West. During his college course he had discovered a strong 
predilection for science, but his love of art was stronger. He made 
such progress in art that, in 1813, he exhibited at the Roj^al Academy 
a picture of the dying Hercules, which won much praise. He first 
modeled the figure in plaster, and with this he had won the prize of 
a gold medal from a Loudon Adelphi Society of Arts. The following 
year he exhibited " The Judgment of Jupiter," a painting praised by 
West. Young Morse returned home in 1815, and, after a brief 
sojourn in Boston, painted portraits, at very moderate prices, in New 
Hampshire, and in Charleston, S. C, where his paintings were 
appreciated and he prospered. In 1822 he made his residence in 
New York city, where, commended by the corporation, he painted a 
full-length portrait of Lafayette in 1824. Chiefly through Morse's 
instrumentality, the artists of New York, dissatisfied with the 
"American Academy of Fine Arts" in that city, founded a new 
association, with the title of the "National Academy of Design, ' 
which is still a flourishing institution. He was the first president of 
the institution. 

In 1829 Mr. Morse again visited Europe, and remained there about 
three years. During his absence he was chosen Professor of the Liter- 
ature of the Arts of Design in the University of the City of New York. 
On his return voyage in the fall of 1832, through a casual conversa- 
tion with the late'Dr. Jackson, of Boston, one of the passengers, his 



HORACE GREELEY. 461 



mind was turned to the subject of electricity, and he conceived tho 
idea of an electro-magnelic recording telegraph, Prof. Henry having 
ah-eady invented an electric teleiiraph, with mechanical power. Within 
three months after his return home Prof. Morse began the construc- 
tion of a recording telegraph. He demonstrated the practical utility 
of his machine in the New York University in 1835, and in 1838 lie 
applied for a patent. After persistent efforts Prof. Morse procured 
from congress an appropriation of $30,000, to enable him to construct 
an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore. It was 
successful, and the first public message transmitted between the two 
cities was the announcement of the nomination, by the democratic 
convention sitting in Baltimore in the spring of 1844, of James K. 
Polk for the presidency. Then appeared rival claimants to the 
invention, infringements of his patent, and long, expensive, and 
vexatious litigations; but Morse finally triumphed, and he was every- 
where acknowledged and honored as the inventor of the recording 
electro-magnetic Telegraph. The representatives of the principal 
European powers, assembled at Paris in 1857, at the suggestion of 
the emperor of the French, presented Prof. Morse with the sum 
of $80,000 in gold, in testimony of their appreciation of his great 
service to the world; and European mona.rchs bestowed upon him 
tokens of their regard. In 1843 he suggested, in a letter to the 
secretary of the U. S. treasury, the project of a telegraphic communi- 
cation between America and Europe, which he lived to assist in 
establishing, in 1858. He also lived to see his invention used and 
appreciated nearly all over the civilized world. Only a few weeks 
before his death, was realized his dream that dispatches might be sent 
each way over the same wire at the same instant of time. Possessed 
of an ample fortune derived from his invention. Prof. Morse lived 
on the banks of the Hudson, n«ar Poughkeepsie, in winter, and in 
New York in the summer, until April 2, 1872, on which day he died 
at his home in New York. 



HORACE GRIGEIL.iriY. 

A PALE, flaxen-haired, delicate, precocious boy about fifteen years 
of age, son of a pof)r farmer, was a printer's apprentice at Poult- 
ney, Vt., in 1826. He was very studious, very faithful, ver}'- honest, 
and besides performing the drudgery of "printer's devil" and 
setting type, he soon became an assistant in editing the newspaper, 
the Northern Spectator. This was Horace Greeley's introduction 
into the realm of journalism, in which he played such a conspicuous 
part. He was born at Amherst, N. H., Feb. 3, 1811, went to 
Vermont with his parents ten years later, and while serving as a 
printer's apprentice they removed to a farm near Erie, Penn. 
Horace made them two visits there, walking a greater part of the 
way. In Aug., 1831, he was iu New York city seeking work, 
\vithout a friend, and only ten dollars in his pocket. He soon found 



462 HORACE GREELEY. 



employment as a journeyman printer. Ability, faithfulness, and 
honesty soon caused his advancement, and he was successively editor 
and proprietor of the Morning Post, the Neic Yorker, iha Jeffermnian , 
and the Log Cabin. In tlie publication of the first named, Francis 
Story was his partner, and in the second, Jonas AVinchester The 
Post, a "penny paper," soon died; the Neio Yorker, a weekly literary 
paper, neutral in politics, was successful in establishing Mr. Greeley's 
character as an editor, but was a failure financially, while the Log 
Cabin, a paper devoted to the election of Gen. Harrison to the presi- 
dency of the United States, had a large circulation, and brought him 
fame and emolument. Finally, in tlie sprhig of 3 841, Mr. Greeley 
began the publication of {]iq New York Tiibune, which became the 
theater of his great exploits in journalism during the remainder of his 
life, a period of more than twenty j^ears. Henry J. Raymond was 
his assistant editor. From the beginning, the paper attracted the 
favorable notice of the public for its independence and public spirit.. 
Mr. Greeley advocated the election of Henry Clay to the presi- 
dency in 1844, and soon afterwards the Iribvne assumed the position 
of an active foe of the slave system in our country. In congress in 
1848-49 he attacked the abuses of the mileage system, and wjis 
instrumental in effecting a reform, for to this end he lent the powerful 
influence of his newspaper. Mr. Greeley visited Europe in 1851, and 
was chairman of one of the juries of the world's fair in London. 
He supported in successive campaigns, for the office of president of 
the United States, Gen. Scott in 1852. John C. Fremont in 1856, and 
Abraham Lincoln in 1860. In 1859 he went to California, delivered 
lectures, and was honored with public leceptions, for his ftime as a 
journalist and publicist was then at its culminating point. When 
the civil war was a-kindling he favored at first a peaceable division 
of the republic, but when it began b}^ flagrant attacks upon the gov- 
ernment he urged a vigorous prosecution of the war. His attempts to 
bring about peace during the war were almost ludicrous failures, and 
at its conclusion he advocated conciliatory measures, and universal 
amnesty and universal suffrage. In May, 1867, he signed his name 
as surety on the bail bond of Jefferson Davis, which effected his 
release from prison in Fortress Monroe, and by this act alienated 
some of his friends at the north who desired to .see treason punished, 
not condoned. Disaffection toward the administration of President 
Grant caused a partial secession from the republican party. The 
secessionists called themselves the " libeial republicans," and they 
nominated Mr. Greeley for president in 1872. The democratic con- 
vention also nominated him, but he was dei'cated by Grant, who was 
elected for a second term. The excitement of the canvass, the deser- 
tion of a large number of his old and most valued political friends, 
and the death of his wife, combined to almost overthrow his reason 
and to completely prostrate his physical strength, and he died, Nov. 
29, 1872, less than a month after the election. Mr, Greelej^ was fond 
of agricultural pursuits, and spent much time on his farm at Chap- 
paqua, in Westchester county, in his later years. He wrcte much 
on the subject. He was one of the busiest of men, sleeping, on an 
average, little more than four hours out of the twentj'-Lour. His 
chief published productions are Hints about Reform, \^bO; Glances 
at Europe; Ilistory of the Struggle for Slavery Extension, 1856 ; Over- 



HENRY WILSOK 463 



land Jour ]iey from New York to San Francisco; The American Con- 
flict, 1864:-'66, a history of the civil war, in two volumes; Recollections 
of a Bus)/ Lfe, 1868; Eisays on Political Economy, and Wliat I Know 
about Farming, published a year before his death. One who knew 
Mr. Greeley well, wrote of him: "Pure, simple, and conscientious 
in character. He had a peculiar disregard for dress, and neglected 
many of the customs of society, but was a true gentleman at heart, 
and possessed rare gifts in conversation." 



"an honest man's the noblest work of God," wrote Pope. Henry 
ijL Wilson, who, in his youth, was a farmer's apprentice, possessed 
of the most slender rudiments of education, and at his death was 
vice-president of the United States, was one of those noble pro- 
ductions of his Creator, for he was, in every position in life, an 
eminently honest man. Born in Farmingtou, N. H., on the 16th of 
Feb., 1812, his early education was almost nothing, for his father 
was very poor. At the age of fourteen lie was apprenticed to a well- 
to-do neighbor, a farmer, for seven years, his compensation being his 
food and clothing, and at his majority six sheep and a yoke of oxen. 
His apprenticeship expired on a stormy Saturday. He sold his 
sheep that day for $9, but could not dispose of his oxen until Mon- 
day, when the man he had served faithfully as long as Jacob did for 
his wife, charged him for the hay his cattle had eaten over Sunday! 
During that apprenticeship his evenings had been spent in reading 
useful books lent to him, and when he was twenty-one he was well 
versed in English and American history, 

Wilson began business life as a shoe-maker at Natick, Mass., and 
earned money enough to pay for his tuition in an academy, at the 
same time reading and studying the legislative history of his country. 
In 1838 he visited Washington, when tlie sight of slaves sold at 
auction so impressed him with abhorrence for the great Wrong, that 
he resolved to wage unceasing war upon those institutions. Return- 
ing, he found his funds gone in consequence of the failure of a 
friend, and he resumed shoe-making at Natick, where, for ten years, 
he manufactured shoes for the southern market. He entered the 
arena of politics in 1840, and he made eighty speeches in favor of 
Gen. Harrison for president of the United States. That year he 
married, and was elected to the state legislature, and became one of 
the ablest speakers in the house. In 1843 lie was elected to the state 
senate; at the same time he carried on the manufacture of shoes at 
Natick. In 1848 he published the Boston Republican, a whig news- 
paper, which he edited with ability for two years. In 1850-52 he 
was president of the state senate, and, in the latter year presided at 
the national convention of the free-soil party at Pittsburg, as a pro- 
nounced and outspoken enemy of slavery. He was the free-soil can- 
didate for governor of Massachusetts in 1853, but was defeated; and 



464 LEWIS CASS. 



in 1855 was elected United States Senater, in -which body he was an 
active, conspicuous, and indefatigable worker in the cause of human 
rigiits and good government. His speeches during the Kansas excite- 
ment were numerous and remarkable. In March, 1859, he made 
his celebrated speech in favor of northern labor. He had taken an 
active part in the organization of the republican party, and was one 
of its acknowledged leaders. He continued to occupy a seat in the 
national senate until 1872, wdien he was elected vice-president of the 
United States. During the civil w-ar his labors were arduous and 
wise. The secretary of war declared that " no man, in my opinion, 
has done more to aid tbe war department in preparing the mighty 
army now under arms." He introduced acts for providing men and 
money for the war. He enlisted 2,300 men in Massachusetts, organized 
a regiment, and, as its colonel, conducted it to Washington. He was 
the author of the bill for abolishing slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, and for employing colored soldiers. In 1867 he instituted the 
congressional temperance society at Washington, and in 1871 spent 
the summer in Europe. In 1872 he was elected vice-president of 
the United States, by a large majority. He died of apoplexy in the 
vice-president's room in the Capitol at Washington, on Nov. 22, 
1875. Mr. Wilson wrote a History of tJie Anti-iSlavery Measures in 
the Tliirty-seventJi and Thirty-eighth Congresses; History of the Recon- 
struction Measures of the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses ; and 
History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave-Fotcer in America, three vol- 
umes. The last volume of this work was nearly completed when he 
died, and was finished by another hand. 



31.E"V^IS CA.SS. 



WHEN President Buchanan hesitated in the exercise of national 
authority to suppress rising rebellion at the close of 1860, hia 
patriotic secretary of state, Lewis Cass, retired from that office in 
disgust. He approved the president's denial of the existence of a 
constitutional power to coerce a state, and so gave passive aid to the 
secessionists, but when war had begun he was found stoutly sup- 
porting the national government. Lewis Cass w^as born at Exeter, 
K H., Oct. 9, 1782, and was a school-fellow witli Daniel Webster 
at the academy there. His famil}^ moved to Ohio, near Zanesville, 
while Lewis was teaching school at Wilmington, Del. The young 
pedagogue went over the Alleghany mountains on foot, rested at 
Marietta, where he studied law, and began its practice at Zanesville, 
Ohio. In 1806 he was a member of the Ohio legislature, and as 
chairman of a committee to investigate the movements of Aaron 
Burr he reported a bill which resulted in the arrest of the supposed 
conspirator. Cass was appointed United States marshal for Ohio 
in 1807, and in 1811 he resigned and engaged in repelling attacks of 
Indians on the northern frontier. At the beginning of the war of 
1812 he was commissioned colonel of volunteers, served under Hull 



LEWIS CASS. 



465 




in the vicinity of Detroit, and was included in the capitulation in 
Aug., 1812. Admitted to parole, he liastened to Washington, and 
so represented the affairs at Detroit that Hull was arrested on a 
charge of cowardice and treason. Cass was exchanged in Jan., 1813, 
was made colonel in the regular army, and served as volunteer aid 
to Gen. Harrison in tlie battle of the Thames. Cass was appointed 
civil and military governor of Michigan in the autumn of 1813, and 
as superintendent of Indian affairs in the north-west he negotiated 
no less than nineteen treaties with the barbarians. 

In 1819-20, Governor Cass organized and conducted a scientific 
expedition in the exploration of the region of the upper Mississippi 
river. He held the responsible position of governor until the sum- 
mer of 1831, when President Jackson called him to his cabinet as 
secretary of war. His advocacy of the policy of removing all tlie 
Indians west of the Mississippi led to war with the Seminoles in 
Florida. Jackson sent him to France as United States resident 
minister, where he remained from 1836 to 1842. Opposed to some 
of the measures of tlie government, he was recalled by his own 
request, and in 184-j chosen United States Senator by the') 3gislature 
of Michigan. He retained the office until 1848, when lie resigned 
and became a nominee for the presidency of tlie United States. He 
was defeated at the election in the autumn of that year by Gen. 



4m SAMUEL GKISWOLD GOODRICH. 



Zachary Taylor, when he was re-elcQted to the senate. He was 
re-elected in 1851, for the full term of six years, and supported 
measures favorable to the slave power. He and Mr. Buchanan uere 
)u accord concerning these measures, and when the latter became 
president of the United States in 1857, he called Senator Cass to his 
cabinet as secretary of state. The active secessionists counted upon 
Cas.s's support, for he had vigorously opposed the "quintuple 
treaty" for the suppression of the slave trade, had warmly supported 
tlie compromise measures of 1850, including Mason's fugitive slave 
law, and argued against the proposition that the national govern- 
ment possessed the constitutional right to coerce a state m insurrec- 
tion into submission. He had opposed the Wilmot Proviso and other 
measures for restricting the spread of slavery. But when the seces- 
sionists resorted to arms, he was found among the supporters of the 
government. He resigned his position as secretary of state and 
retired to Ids home in Detroit, where he died on the 17t]i of June, 
1866. He edited and published an interesting work entitled France^ 
its King, Court, and Government. 



SAIMXJEIL. &RISW^OnL.r) GOODRICH. 

i^ [ STAND before the public," wrote Mr. Goodrich in his i?ec<??- 
1 lections of a Lifetime, "as the author and editor of about 170 
volumes, 116 bearing the name of Peter Parley. Of all these, over 
seven million of volumes have been sold." Like Jacob Abbott, 
"Peter Parley" (the assumed name of Mr. Goodrich) labored chiefly 
for the amusement and instruction of the young. He was born in 
Ridgetield, Conn., Aug. 19, 1793. Having received a good common- 
school education, he began the publishing business at Hartford, on 
attaining his majority. In 1824 he visited Europe, and, on )iis 
return, established himself as a publisher in Boston. From 1898 to 
1842 he edited and published The Token, an illustrated annual, to 
which he contributed several tales and poems, and in which first 
appeared the finest of Hawthorne's Tidce-Told Tales, without attract- 
ing much attention. The entire annual, literary and artistic, was 
composed of the work of Americans. 

It was soon after Mr, Goodrich removed to Boston that he be^an 
his popular series of " Peter Parley's" juvenile books. The 116 vol- 
umes comprised geographies, hi.stories, travels, stories, and various 
illustrations of the arls and sciences. In 1841 he established Mercy's 
Museimi and Parley's Magazine, a juvenile iicriodical, which he 
edited until 1854. Mr. Goodrich was appointed United Slates consul 
at Paris in 1851. While there he published a work in French on the 
geogi-aphy and history of the United States of America. _ On his 
return to his native country he published a kind of autobiography 
entitled Recollections of a Lifetime; or Men and Things I have Seen: 
in a series of Familiar Letters to a Friend, historical, biographical, 
anecdotal and descriptive. In that work he gives the names of 



MILLARD FILLMORE. 4G7 



tlio books of which he was the author, the recital of which fills six 
closely printed pages. His latest production was an Illmtrated 
Natural History of the Animal Kingdom, completed in 1(S59. Mr. 
Goodricli died suddenly in the city of New York, May 9, 1860. On 
May 8 he called upon the writer of this sketch, and appointed another 
interview^ at 11 o'clock the next day. At 9 o'clock that morning- his 
life ended. In person Mr. Goodrich was commanding in appearance, 
and was singularly vigorous in mind and body for one of his age. 
In deportment he was courteous and polite on all occasions, and was 
a charming companion with men of cultivation. 



ON the death of President Zachary Taylor, in July, 1850, the vice- 
president — Millard Fillmore — according to the "provisions of the 
constitution in such cases, became president of the United States. 
He had worked his way up to eminence from poverty and obscurity 
by patient perseverance. He was born at Summer Hill, Cayuga 
county, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1800. In his youth he was apprenticed to a 
wool-carder and fuller, and during the four years that he worked 
at his trade he assiduously cultivated his mind to the extent of his 
opportunities, for his school education had been very meager. He 
conceived the idea of studying law when he was nineteen years old, 
and by contracting to pay his master $30 for the remainder of his 
time (two years) he was released. He studied with a retired lawyer 
for a while, and then he went, on foot, to Buffalo, having, on his 
arrival, only $4 in his pocket. He was then twenty-one yeais old. 
There lie supported himself by severe drudgery in teaching school 
and assisting the postmaster, while he studied, by permission, in a 
lawyer's oflicc. At the end oi two years he was aclmitted to the bar 
of Erie county as an attorney in the court of common pleas, and 
commenced the pi-actice of law at Aurora, N. Y. He soon acquired 
an extensive business, and took rank, in the course of a few years, 
among the foremost lawyers of the state. He was admitted to prac- 
tice in the supreme court of the state. Removing to Buffalo in 1830, 
he pursued his profession there until 1847, wdien he was elected 
comptroller of the state. 

Mr. Fillmore's political life began in 1828. He was elected to the 
state legislature by the anti-masonic party, where he served thi-ee 
terms in succession, and was active in efforts for the repeal of the 
law for imprisoimient for debt, which was accomplished in 1831. 
Mr. Fillmore drafted most of the bill repealing that barbarous law\ 
He was elected to congress in 1832, and again in 1830, wlien he 
remained there by successive elections for six years. Mr. Fillmore 
was a whig, and supported John Quincy Adams in his assertion of 
the right of petition on the subject of slavery. He opposed the 
annexation of Texas because it would extend the area of slave terri- 
tory, and advocated the immediate abolition of the inter-state slave- 



468 JOHN LOTHROP MOTLEY. 



trade and slaver}^ in the District of Coliunbia. In the famous contest 
of New Jersey men for seats in congress, in 1839, Mr. Fillmore look 
a prominent part as one of the committee to which the subject Avns 
referred. In the next cohgress, in which the whigs had a majority, 
Mr. Fillmore was chairman of the committee of ways and means, 
and, as such, performed valuable public services. 

In 1843 Mr. Fillmore retired from congress. Defeated as a candi- 
date for the governorship of his state in 1844, he was elected comp- 
troller in 1847, and, in that capacity, he proposed a system of state 
banking substantially like that of our national banking system. Mr, 
Fillmore was elected vice-president with Mr. Taylor m 1848, and, 
on the death of the president in 1850, he succeeded to that office. 
During the acrimonious debates in congress in 1849-50 on the sub- 
ject of slavery, Mr, Fillmore declared to the senate that he should 
exercise the power of calling senators to order. His course was 
unanimously approved by a vote of the senate. On becoming presi- 
dent, Mr. Fillmore called Daniel Webster to his cabinet as secretary 
of state. During his administration, measures were taken for open- 
ing commercial intercourse with Japan, and other notable treaties were 
made. Mr. Fillmore retired to private life in March, 1853, leaving 
the country at peace at home and abroad. He had been a candidate 
for nomination by the wiiig party for president, in 1852, but failed. 
In 1854 he made an extensive tour of the southern and western states, 
and, in the spring of 1855, after an excursion in New England, he 
sailed for Europe, where he remained until the next summer. While 
he was in Rome he received information that he had been nominated 
for president by the native American party. He accepted it, but 
Maryland, alone, gave him its electoral votes. Mr. Fillmore died in 
Buffalo, March 8, 1874. 



JOHN^ LOTHROF jMOTI.KY. 

ONE of the most eminent historians of our time was John Lothrop 
Motley, who was born in Dorchester, Mass., April 15, 1814, and 
irraduated at Harvard University in 1831. He spent a year at each of 
the universities of Gottingen and Berlin, and then traveled in Europe. 
On his return home he studied law, and was admitted to the bar m 
1836. He practiced little, for he loved literature better than law. 
He published a novel in 1839, and the next year went to Russia as 
secretary of legation to the American embassy, where he remained 
about eight months, when he resigned and returned to the United 
States. In 1849 he published a romance called 3Ierry Mount. He 
had already begun to collect materials for a history of Holland, and 
had written enough to make two volumes, when, unable to find 
material needful to complete the work, he embarked for Europe with 
his family in 1851. Dissatisfied with his previous labors on the his. 
tory of Holland, he threw the manuscript aside and began anew, using 
original materials found in Holland and elsewhere. He spent five 



ANDREW JOHNSON. 469 



years abroad, and produced his famous work entitled The Btse of the 
Dutch Eepublic, in three volumes. It was reprmted at Amsterdam 
with an introduction by the historian Bakliuysen Van den Brink, it 
was also translated into French (with ai]. introduction by Guizot) 
German, and Russian. Tlie second portion of Motley's history ot 
Holland was published in 1860, entitled The llktonj of the United 
Netherlands from the Death of William the Silent to the Iwelve Years 
Truce 1609 It was completed in 1867 in two additional volumes. 
This work was followed in 1874 by The Life and Death of John of 
Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, tcith a View of the Primary Causes of 
the Thirty Years' War, in two volumes. IVLr. Motley was engaged 
in writing a History of the Thirty Years War 'aUXxh time ot his death, 
which occurred in England on iMay 29, 1877. . , , . .q^. , 

Mr Motley was appointed minister to Austria late in l»bl, ana 
resio-ned in 1867. On the accession of Gen. Grant to the presidency 
in f869 he was appointed minister to England, but was recalled a 
year later, when he revisited Holland and afterward went to Eng- 
land Mr Motley was elected a member of many learned societies in 
Europe and America, among them the Institute of France in place 
of W H. Prescott, deceased. In 1860 he received the degree of 
D c L. from the University of Oxford, \^\Yi., and ll.d. from Harvard 
University; also the same degree from the University of Cambridge. 
The next year he published an able paper in the London Times on 
" The Causes of the American Civil War." In 1868 he delivered an 
address before the New York Historical Society on "Historical 
Proo-ress and American Democracy. " His daughter was married to a 
distfnguished gentleman in England, and Mr. Motley was residing 
with her at the time of his death. 



''I'^HE life-career of the seventeenth president of the United States 
1 illustrates the spirit and genius of our free institutions. Andrew 
Johnson was born at Raleigh, N. C, on Dec. 29, 1808. His parents 
were very poor, and he was so little educated that he was first taught , 
to write and cipher by his wife. He learned the trade of a tailor. 
He had settled in Greenville, East Tennessee, just before his mar- 
riao-e, taking with him his mother, who depended upon him. 
Endowed with great physical and mental energy, and taking an 
interest in local politics, he soon acquired the name of a skiUtul 
leader and the position of alderman of the town. He was chosen 
its mayor when he was less than twenty-three years of age. In 1825 
he became a member of the Tennessee legislature, and again in 1889; 
and in 1840 was chosen a presidential elector. In 1841 he was m 
the state senate, and from 1843 to 1853 held a seat in the national 
congress, where he was a conspicuous advocate, as a ready debater, of 
the annexation of Texas. In 1853 he was elected governor of Ten- 
nessee, and re-elected in 1855. He took his seat in the United States 



470 JACOB ABBOTT. 



Senate in 1857 for a term of six years. He was tlien a member of tiie 
Democratic party; but when tlie civil war broke out lie took sides 
with the government and was made military governor of Tennessee 
in 1862, and in the fall of 1864 was elected vice president of the 
United States, with Mr. Lincoln as president. The promise of the 
inaugural scenes on March 4, 1865, was not auspicious. On the 
death of Mr. Lincoln he became, constitutionally, president of the 
United States. At first he was very zealous, in words, against the 
enemies of the government, but very soon he not only favored 
them, but made war, as far as he was able by his personal acts, upon 
congress, trying to foil their measures for the reorganization of the 
disorganized states, and every act for the benefit of the freedmen. 
So revolutionary became his words and his efforts that he was finally 
impeached. There was a lack of only one vote of two thirds of the 
senate to convict him, and he was acquitted. It was sad to see a 
man, late in life, destroying, in a few months, by giving way to 
passion, a good character as a citizen and statesman which he had 
been years building up. His vetoes of wholesome measures adopted 
by congress were universally overruled by a two thirds vote, and he 
went out of the unseemly conflict thoroughly vanquished. Mr. 
Johnson returned to his home in Tennessee in March, 1869, and died 
in Clarke county in that state on the 31st of July, 1875. In 1866 the 
University of North Carolina conferred upon President Johnson the 
honorary degree of ll.d. 



n'^HE young people of America, and, indeed, wherever the English 
1 language is spoken, have reason to cherish with reverence and 
affection the name of Jacob Abbott, because of the delight and 
instruction he has given them in his numerous stories for youths and 
which include in their scope almost every department of human 
activity. His brother — John S. C. — was also a pleasing writer for 
the young. Together they wrote a series of short histories from 
which PresidentlLincolu once said he had learned more of history 
than from any other sources. 

Jacob Abbott was born at Hallowell, Maine, Nov. 14, 1803. He 
graduated at Bowdoin College in 1820, and at Andover Theological 
Seminary studied divinity. From 1825 to 1829 Mr. Abbott was pro- 
fessor of mathematics and natural philosophy in Amherst College, 
whence he removed to Boston, where he took charge of the Mt. 
Vernon School for girls in that city, which had then been lately 
established. In 1834"he assisted in the organization of a new Congre- 
gational church in Roxbury — the Eliot Church— of which he was 
installed pastor. About 1838 he relinquished the pastoral charge to 
his brother — John S. C, Abbott — and settled in Farmington, Maine, 
which place, an old homestead of the family, continued to be his 
residence until his death, which occurred there Oct, 31, 1879. From 



WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 471 



that timo (1838) frrvvai-d he devoted his life to literary pursuits, 
chiefly in the preparation of books for the instruction and anuise- 
inunt'of the voung-. Tliese comprise about two hundred volumes. 
One of the earliest of his volumes was " The Young Christian," issued 
the year of his graduation at Amherst. His interest in young people 
never abated. His books are remarkable for their wealth of informa- 
tion, their absolute purity of tone and expression, and for their 
wonderful attractiveness for the young of both sexes. Few men 
have done so much for the intellectual and moral training of youth 

as Jacob Abbott. , . -..i, . tvt at i 

Mr. Abbott spent much time during his active lite in INew YorR, 
where much of his literary labor was performed; but his summers 
were usually passed at his home in Farmington, which he appropri- 
ately named " Few Acres," only a few, which he cultivated with care 
and assiduity. His personal character was as lovely as his most 
ardent admirers among his millions of readers could imagine. 



^A^ILLI^M: LLOYD Gri^RrtTSOlSr. 

U If Y country is the world; my countrymen are all mankind," 
ItL declared William Lloyd Garrison, in the first number of his 
famous Liberator, issued in Boston, Jan. 1, 1831. And he said in 
his salutatory, on the subject of slavery, " I am in earnest. I will not 
eqnivocate; I will not excuse; I will not retreat a single inch, and I 
will be heard." Mr. Garrison had then suffered much for conscience 
sake, but his spirit was not even bent. 

Mr. Garrison was born in Newburyport, Mass., Dec. 12, 1804. 
His parents were from the British province of New Brunswick. 
On account of poverty, his excellent mother became a professional 
nurse, and William, at an early age, was apprenticed to a shoe- 
maker. He was afterwards sent to school, and partly supported 
himself by aiding: a wood-sawyer. In 1815 he went to Baltimore 
with his mother, lind on his return in 1818, he was apprenticed to a 
newspaper printer. He soon began to write acceptable articles for 
the paper, but always anonymously. He wrote for other journals, 
and his political articles attracted much attention. His first venture 
as a publisher, in Newbury port— the Free Press— was unsuccess- 
ful, and he labored a while in Boston as a journeyman printer. In 
that city he became editor of the National Philanthropist in 1837. 
It was the first journal ever established to advocate the cause of 
"total abstinence from intoxicating liquors." Afterwards Mr. 
Garrison, with another, published a paper at Bennington, Vt., 
devoted to politics, general reform, and especially to the cause of 
anti-slavery. His course on the latter subject was so decided and 
effective, that Benjamin Lundy, a Quaker, was then publishing the 
Oenius of Universal Einancipation at Baltimore, engaged Mr. Gar- 
rison to assist him. Before going to Baltimore, he delivered an 
address in the Park Street Church, Boston, on July 4, 1829, which, 



472 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 



by its bold denunciation of slavery, startled all thoughtful people. 
In the fall he began his career in Baltiifiore, and advocated immedi- 
ate emancipation as the right of the slave and the duty of the mas- 
ter. He also derided the Colonization Society. Mr. Garrison very 
soon incurred the enmity of all who were interested in the perpetua- 
tion of the slave system. He was fined and imprisoned as the result 
of libel-suits. The northern press, the Manumission Society of North 
Carolina, and Henry Clay condemned his imprisonment as a direct 
blow at the liberty of the press, and Arthur Tappan, a New York 
merchant, paid his fine and he was set at liberty. 

Mr. Garrison now prepared a course of lectures on slavery, which 
he delivered in Philadelphia, New Y^ork, and Boston, under great 
opposition. He was unable to procure a public place to lecture in 
at Boston until he advertised that unless some church or hall should 
be offered in which he might make his plea for humanity, he should 
address the people on the common. An association of men whom 
society called infidels offered him the use of their hall. A large 
audience attended, and he declared that in Christianity alone rested 
tiie hopes of the slave. He gave the system of slavery and its abet- 
tors hard blows. His fervid and logical appeals were listened to with 
great attention, and there were many 

" Who came to scoff remained to pray." 

At the beginning of 1881 Mr. Garrison issued the first number of 
the Liberator, with the words quoted at the beginning of this 
sketch. Under the severe pressure of poverty and public odium he 
persevered, working in the printing otlice all day, and writing half 
the night. The Liberator attracted great attention, north and 
south. The mayor of Boston having been appealed to by a magis- 
trate in a southern state to suppress the paper, replied, " I have fer- 
reted out the paper and its editor, whose office was in an obscure 
hole, his only visible auxiliary a negro boy, his supporters a very 
few insignificant i>ersons of all colors." "What a testimony is this to 
the power of faith animating a courageous spirit, which subsequent 
events in the history of our country demonstrate. Almost every 
mail brought to Mr. Garrison threats of assassination if he did not 
discontinue the Liberator. At near the close of 1831 the legislature 
of Georgia passed an act offering a reward cf ^5,000 to any person 
who should arrest and prosecute to conviction the obnoxious editor 
and publisher. This was answered by Mi. U:irrison by the immedi- 
ate formation of an anti-slavery society it. New England. He went 
to England as its agent, where he found powerful support of the 
cause, and soon after his return the Ainerican Anti-slavery Society 
was formed in Philadelphia. In all subsequent movements in oppo- 
sition to the slave system, until it ^■a's, destroyed, by the rebellion of 
its adherents, in 1863, Mr. Garrison was the' acknowledged leader. 
His name was continually on the lips of mobs who assailed the 
meetings of abolitionists every^vhere. These meetings were broken 
up by violence in Boston by ptirsons described by the press at that 
day as "gentlemen of propevty and standing." In 1843 Mr. Garrison 
was chosen president of the American Anti-slavery Society, and held 
the office until the dissolution of the society in 1865. He saw the 
full triumph of the cause iu which he had so long and so fearlessly 



BAYARD TAYLOR 473 



labored. By invitation of the secretary of war in April, 1865, he 
accompanied a party from the nortli who proceeded to Charleston 
harbor and assisted at the raising of the flag of our emancipated 
country over tlife ruins of Fort Sumter. A writer in Appleton's 
Cydopcedia says; "The first number of the Liberator, issued in 
1831, found the whole nation asleep over the wrongs and dangers of 
slavery: the last number, issued on the last of December, 1865, after 
thirty-five years of conflict with the slave power, recorded the ratifi- 
cation of an amendment to the constitution of the United States for- 
ever prohibiting the existence of slavery." Soon after the close of 
the war, many distinguished citizens of our country united in pre- 
senting to Mr. Garrison the sum of $30,000 as a testimonial of their 
appreciation of his great services to the republic. He visited Eng- 
land in 1867, where he was cordially welcomed by distinguished citi- 
zens and statesmen. Mr. Garrison died May 24, 1879. 



OKE of the most persevering, extensive, and enlightened of the 
world's travelers was Bayard Taylor, as he was one of the most 
charming and prolific of American writers of prose and poetry. 
He was born at Kenneth Square, Chester County, Penn., Jan. 
11, 1825. At the age of seventeen he became an apprentice in a 
printing-office in West Chester, and he employed his leisure hours in 
studying and writing verses. In 1844 a collection of them was 
published under the title of Ximena. The same year he began a 
pedestrian tour in Europe after securing employment as a contributor 
during his absence to a number of American newspapers. On 
his return, after two years of travel, he published a volume enti- 
tled Views Afoot. In 1848 Mr. Taylor became permanently con- 
nected with the NeiD York Tribune, having edited a newspaper 
in Phoenixville, Penn., for a year, and writing for the Liter- 
ary World. It was in the Tribune that his subsequent books of 
travel first appeared. In 1850 he visited California and Mexico, and 
describes his experiences there in his Eldorado ; or Adventures in 
the Path of Emjyire. His Book of Bomauces, Ijyrics, and Songs 
appeared in 1851, and that year he began a long tour in the eastern 
hemisphere — Europe, Asia, and Africa. While in China, he was 
attached to the American legation a short time, and then joined 
Commodore Perry on his mission to Japan. He returned home at 
the close of 1853, having traveled about 50,000 miles during his 
absence. He continued to travel, and published his notes in the 
Tribune and in book form, until 1862, when he was appointed 
secretary to the American legation at St. Petersburg, where, for a 
time, he acted as Charge d'aifairs. He left that position the next 
year, and during the next two or three years produced two novels. 
He also wrote and published poems and brief sketches of travel; and 
in 1871 he completed and published a translation of Goethe's 



474 ROBERT EDMUND LEE. 



Faust, which is accepted as the bes^ in the English language. He 
assumed the editorship of the Illustrated Library of Travel, Kvplora- 
Hon, and Adventure in 1872, in a series of small volumes. 

For a while Mr. Taylor occupied a conspicuous place In the lec- 
ture field, and was a constant contributor to serial publications. He 
was appointed American minister to the court of the emperor of Ger- 
many, and in April sailed for Europe with his family. The German 
people gave him a hearty welcome, for his name was well known 
throughout the empire. He had long contemplated writing a full 
biography of Goethe, and he expected his position as minister at 
Berlin would give him many advantages for such a task, but death 
cut short his career in the course of a few months after his arrival at 
his diplomatic post. He died in Berlin on Dec. 19, 1878. Mr. 
Taylor visited Iceland in 1874, on the occasion of the one-thousandth 
anniversary of its settlement by the Norwegians. His remains were 
brought to New York in March, 1879, where they were received 
with appropriate public respect. They were buried near his home 
at Cedar Croft, Penn. 



ROBERT EDJVLXJNr) LEE. 

THE most distinguished but not the most skillful of the military 
leaders of the Confederate forces during the late civil war, was 
Robert E. Lee. He was born at Stafford, Westmoreland County, 
Va., on June 19, 1807. He was a son of Col. Henry Lee of the 
Revolution, known as " Legion Harry." He became a cadet at West 
Point in 1825, where he was distinguished for his good behavior, 
and graduated in 1829, second in his class. During the whole four 
3'ears of his cadetship he was never reprimanded or received a 
demerit mark. He entered the corps of engineers, was engaged as 
assistant engineer, from 1829 until 1834, in the construction of For- 
tress Monroe. In 1839 he was assistant astronomer in determining 
the boundary between Ohio and Michigan. In 1838 he was pro- 
moted to captain, and when the war with Mexico began, he was 
appointed chief engineer of the army under Gen. Scott, and was 
distinguished for important services during the contest. For his 
gallantry he received successive brevets, the last that of colonel. 
From 1852 to 1855 he was superintendent of the military academy at 
West Point. In the latter year he was made lieutenant-colonel of 
one of two new regiments of cavalry, of which Albert Sidney John- 
ston was colonel, Hardee and Thomas majors, and Van Dorn and 
Kirby Smith captains. All of these officers excepting George H. 
Thomas deserted their flag in 1861, and fought against their country. 
Through his wife, Mary Custis, a great-granddaughter of Mrs. Wash- 
ington, and daughter of Washingron's adopted son, G. W. P. Custis, 
he came into possession of the Arlington estate, near the national 
capital, and the " White House" on the Pamunkey. 
In the fall of 1859 Lee was placed in command of United States 



ROBERT EDMUND LEE. 



475 




forces to suppress the invasion of John Brown, at Harper's Ferry, 
and was soon afterward seut to take command of tlie Department of 
Texas, Seduced from his alleg'iance to the national government by 
the champions of the doctrine of state supremacy, he obtained leave 
of absence in Dec, 1860, and came home. When, in April, 1861, 
a Virginia convention issued an ordinance of secession, he resigned 
his commission, saying: "Save in defense of my native state, I never 
desire again to draw my sword." Lee at once repaired to Richmond 
and was appointed major-general of the forces of Virginia. In 
accepting the position, he said: "Trusting in Almighty God, an 
approving conscience, and the aid of my fellow-citizens, I devote 
myself to the service of my native state, in whose behalf alone will I 
ever again draw my sword." Circumstances led him to draw his sword 
in the service of several confederated states whose people were in 
arms against his country. He was not successful at first, in command 
in western Virginia, and he was sent to perforin engineering service 
on ihe Savannah river. He also acted as military adviser of Jeffer- 
son Davis. In June, 1862, he was appointed to the command of the 
arm}'^ of Northern Virginia, and with that army he fought the 
national forces until he was compelled to surrender at Appomattox 
Court-house, April 9, 1865. Early in that year he was made general- 



476 WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 



in-cliief of the confederate forces. After the war he returned to pri- 
vate life. In Nov., 1865, he accepted the ] osition of president of 
Washington and Lee College, at Lexington, Va,, to which his popu- 
larity in the south soon drew nearly 500 students. On the 28th of 
Sept., 1870, while apparently in his usual health, Gen. Lee was struck 
with paralysis and died a fortnight afterwards (Oct., 12). His three 
sons were officers in the Confederate service. 



-WlT^l^lJ^l^ CTJLLEN- BRYAIS-T. 

AMONG the hills of Hampshire County, Mass., at the village of 
Cummington, William Cullen Bryant was born on Nov. 3, 1794. 
He was a son of a distinguished local physician, whose mind was 
richly cultivated by study and travel, and who spent much time 
in the intellectual culture of his children, and particularly of Wil- 
liam, whose poetic genius was early ma^e manifest. In his boyhood 
he communicated rhymes to the country newspapers, and when in 
his thirteenth year he wrote a political poem entitled '"The Embargo," 
which evinced great precocity of intellect. He entered Williams 
College in 1810, tjut did not graduate. Choosing the profession of 
law, he was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one. Mean- 
while he had written several meritorious poems. The most remark- 
abte literary production of his life was " Thanatopsis," written when 
he was nineteen years of age. Mr. Bryant began the practice 
of law first at Plainfield. He soon removed to Great Barring- 
ton, and rose very rapidly in reputation as a pleader in the local 
courts. His tastes inclined him to the pursuit of literature, and it 
was not long before he abandoned law as a profession. " Thana- 
topsis" was published in the North American Rexiew, and intro- 
duced him to the late Richard H. Dana, who was one of the club 
which then conducted the Renew. It was published anony- 
mously, and excited the curiosity and admiration of the literati of 
that day. He contributed some prose articles to the Review. In 
1821 he delivered a didactic poem on "The Ages," before the Phi 
Beta Kappa Society a'. Harvard College, and the same year he pub- 
lished a collection of his poems in a volume. 

In 1825 Mr. Bryant became associate editor of the New York 
Rcviev), and in 1826 he formed an editorial connection with the 
New York Evening Post, which continued until his death. 
When, some years after he became associate editor of the Post, 
ard he had become editor-in-chief, Mr. Bryant made it a decided 
democratic newspaper, taking ground in favor of freedom for all 
and free trade, a position which he consistently maintained, with an 
independent spirit, until the end of his life. In 1834 Mr. Bryant 
sailed, with his family, to Europe, where he was already familiarly 
known, and traveled through France, Italy, and Germany, continually 
studying the language and literature of those countries. He visited 
Europe again in 1845, 1849, and 1858, and in the intervals hacj 



JOSEPH HENRY. 477 



visited much of his native country from Maine to Florida; also Cuba. 
In 1803 he publislied a small volume of new poems, entitled Thirty 
Poems, and the next year, on the completion of his seventieth year, 
his birthday was celebrated by a festival at the Century Club, nearly 
all the prominent literary men of the country being present, or send- 
ing complimentary letters. He translated the poems of Homer after 
he was seventy years of age. He began that of the Iliad m 1865, 
and linished the last book of the Odyssey in Dec. 1871. Mr. Bry- 
ant's occasional speeches and more formal orations are models of 
stately style, sometimes enlivened by quiet humor. He was equally 
happy in the composition — prose and poetry. His tr.uislatioa from 
Homer into blank verse is universally conceded to be the best 
English version of the great epics. His last poem, on the subject of 
Washington, was published in the Sunday School Times, Philadel- 
phia, on Feb. 22, 1878. At the time of his death, June 12, 1878, he 
was engaged with Mr. Sidney Howard Gay in the preparation of a 
History of the United States. He had also completed, with the assist- 
ance of the late Evert A. Duyckinck, a new and carefully annotated 
edition of Shakespeare's Works, yet (18t)6) unpublished. 



ABOUT fifty years ago (1831-32), the minds of two Americans were 
occupied in efforts to solve the problem of the transmission of 
intelligence by means of electricity. These tw^o men, who became 
famous in scientific annals, were Joseph Henry and Samuel F. B. 
Morse. The first named may fairly claim the honor of being the 
inventor of the electro-magnetic telegraph ; the latter performed a 
greater w^ork for the public good by the invention of a method for 
making the telegraph useful by giving it a voice. 

Joseph Henry was a native of the city of Albany, N. Y., where he 
was born, Dec. 1797. Educated in the common schools and the 
academy of his native city, young Henry early evinced a taste and 
genius for mathematics and scientific research. He was apprenticed 
to a watchmaker and jeweler, and bent all his energies to the acquire- 
ment of knowledge. Such was his success in intellectual attainments, 
that in 1826 he was appointed professor of mathematics in the 
academy at which he had graduated. The next year he began a series 
of investigations and experiments in electricity, and in 1828 he made 
his first communication on the subject to Silliman's American Jour- 
nal of Science. These experiments and reports continued for about 
twelve years. The electro-magnet had long been known as a scien- 
tific toy; but, until Henry's investigations, -no attempt had been 
made to develop its capacity as a phitosophical instrument. He was 
the first to prove, by actual experiment, that, in order to develop mag- 
netic power at a distance, a galvanic battery of intensity must be 
employed to project the current; and th;\t a magnet surrounded by 
many coils of one long wire must be used to receive this current. In 



478 JOSEPH HENRY. 



1831 he placed a wire more than a miltvin length in circles around a 
room in the Albany academy through which he transmitted signals 
by means of an electro-magnet which caused a lever to impinge upon 
a bell. In his report of this experiment published in the American 
Journal of Science, the professor pointed out the possibility of instan- 
taneous conveyance of intelligence between distant points. This was 
as far as his investigations carried him in the way of telegraphy. Had 
he discovered a m(;thod of giving intellectual signs or (figuratively) a 
voice to his invention, he would have gained the crown won and 
worn by Prof. Morse. ^ During the same year (1831) Henry 
exhibited the first contrivance ever invented for producing and main- 
taining continuous motion with electricity as a motor. He invented, 
and exhibited in 1861, the first telephone ever constructed, but, as 
with his other inventions, he failed to give it practical utility. 

Professor Henry's communications m the American Journal of 
Science having given him a great reputation, he was invited to Yale 
College in 1831, and while there he constructed a magnet capable of 
sustaining a weight of two thousand pounds. Another was con- 
structed a few weeks later for the College of New Jersey, at Prince- 
ton, which sustained a weight of three thousand pounds. In 1832 Mr. 
Henry was elected professor in that institution. At the end of five 
yeais he was overworked, took leave of the college and made a tour 
in Europe, where his brilliant reputation had preceded him. We 
know but little concerning the inlellectual activities of Prof. 
Henry during the succeeding years until 1846, when, upon the 
organization of the Smithsonian Institution, he was made its secre- 
tary, which responsible and very important position he held until his 
death, on the 13th of May, 1878, a period of thirty-two years. In 
1849 he was chosen president of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, and in 1868 he became president of the 
National Academy of Science. He was placed at the head of the 
Lighthouse Board of the United States in 1871. This is one of the 
most laborious posts in the gift of the Navy Department. So early^ 
as 1829, at the age of thirty-lwo years, while yet a mere professor a 
grace, in the Albany Acatiemy, t'nion College conferred upon him 
the honorary degi-ee of ll.d., and in 1851 Harvard University con- 
ferred tlie same degree upon him. His literary work is scattered 
through many publications. As secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution at Washington, he had the principal control of its publications, 
which involved much critical labor, and he was the chief person in 
making selections for the Transactions. In this labor his intellectual 
grasp was made manifest, for these papers treated upon the whole 
subject of physical scientific research, including that of his specialty 
— electricity. The influence of Prof. Henry in stimulating (U'ig- 
inal researches in the domain of the phj'sical sciences cannot well be 
overestimated. His last illness was caused by a severe cold taken on 
a trip north in connection with the fog signal service, which developed 
into a severe attack of Bright'^ disease of the kidneys. It ran its 
course rapidly and ended the life of the great scientist. His remains 
were interred in Rock Creek cemetery, near Georgetown, D. C. 

1. This was Morse's iiuist iiiipnrtant achievement. See sketch ol'S. F. B. Morse. 



REVERDY JOIINSOK 479 



ONE of the most active members of the "Peace Convention/* held 
at Washington at the beginning of tlie late civil war, was 
Keverdy Johnson, an eminent lawyer of Baltimore. He was born in 
Annapolis, Md., May 21, 1796, and died there on the 10th of 
Feb., 1876. His father was, at dififereut times, attorney-general, 
judge of the court of appeals, and chancellor of Maryland. Keverdy 
entered the primary department of St. John's College, at Annapolis, 
when he was six years of age, and remained there ten years. He 
studied law with his father, and was admitted to the bar in 1815, and 
for fifty years was engaged in the practice of his profession. In 1814 
he enlisted in the military service to defend his state against the 
invading British, and took part in the battle of Bladensburg. Return- 
ing to Baltimore in 1817, he began the study of law. Three years later 
he was appointed chief commissioner of insolvent debtors, which 
office he held until 1821, when he was elected to a seat in the state 
senate. He was re-elected, but soon resigned to devote himself 
entirely to his profession. He reported and edited the judicial 
decisions in the court of appeals in Maryland, in seven volumes, 
known as Harris's and Johnson's Reports. Active in the whig party 
after it assumed that name, he did good service as a private, never 
accepting office until 1845, when he was chosen United States Senator. 
He remained in congress ten years, when, in 1840, he was called to 
the cabinet of President Taylor as attorney-general. Soon after 
the president's death the next year he resigned, and for the next ten 
years was engaged unremittingly in his profession, chiefly in the 
Supreme Court of the United States. 

When the turmoil of preparation for secession and civil war Avas 
heard in the southern states in 1860, Mr. Johnson viewed the situa- 
tion with great anxiety. His sympathies were on the side of his 
country and the union, but on every side, socially, there was a severe 
pressure upon him in the direction of secession. He was a 
member of the " Peace Convention" at Washington, early in 1861, 
where he took a leading part in endeavors to bring about a reconcil- 
iation. Soon afterwards he was chosen to represent Baltimore 
County in the Maryland Assembly, and in 1862 was chosen United 
States Senator for six years from March, 1863. There he was a firm 
supporter of the union, and was one of the most industrious and 
active members of the senate during his entire term, and amemberof 
various important committees. Mr. Johnson was a delegate to the 
" National Union Convention" held at Philadelphia in 1866, in the 
interest of President Andrew Johnson, and was nominated by that 
functionary to the English mission in the summer of 1868. His 
special business was to procure a settlement of the "Alabama 
claims," but he failed to effect anything. On his return, he resumed 
the practice of his profession, and was engaged in it at Annapolis at 
the time of his sudden demise. His lifeless body was found in the 
evening lying upon the stone pavement of the carriage-way leading 
under the porch of the governor's mansion, where Mr. Johnson was 



480 



RUFUS CHOATE. 



a guest. It was supposed be fell, on account of defective vision, in 
pa^ jUg down the stone steps leading to the carriage-way, and was 
killed. Mr. Johnson was of medium height, of a grave countenance, 
courteous and pleasing manners, and was a favorite in society. 



RXJFXJS CHOA-TIS. 

U TTE fairly fought his way to eminence, created the taste 
XI gratified, and demonstrated the possibility of almost 
variety of eloquence," wrote Prof. Brown, concerning 
Cboate, the celebrated lawyer and orator of Massachusetts. He was 



which 

a new 
Rufus 




born Oct 1 1799, in the old Massachusetts town of Ipswich, and was 
descended from a race of thrifty farmers. The training of Rufus 
devolved upon his mother after he was nine years of age, at which 
time his father ^iied. With the parish clergyman and teachers of the 



DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 481 



district schools he studied Latin, beginuing in his tenth year, and in 
1855 entered Dartmouth College, at which he graduated with highest 
honors. For a year afterward he was a tutor in the college, when he 
entered the Dane law school at Cambridge. He afterwards studied 
under the celebrated William Wirt, of Washington, completing his 
legal studies at Salem. Mr. Choate entered upon the practice of law 
at Dan vers, soon removed to Salem, and in 1825 was elected to a seat 
in the Massachusetts legislature. Two years later he occupied a seat 
in the senate, and acquired a wide-spread reputation for eloquence, 
logical ability, and sagacity. From 1832 to 1835 he represented tlie 
Essex district in congress, and then went to Boston, wiiere he devoted 
hiniself to the practice of his profession. He rapidly attained the 
higiiest place as a lawyer and forensic orator, and took the posi- 
tion of one of the leaders of the bar in his native state. When, in 
1841, Daniel Webster retired from the senate, Mr. Choate was chosen 
to fill his place, where he took a conspicuous part in several impor- 
tant debates on momentous pul^lic questions; and when the Smith- 
sonian Institution was established, he was chosen one of the regents. 
He warmly opposed the annexation of Texas, because he regarded 
it as a scheme of southern politicians for the extension of the domin- 
ion of slavery. At the close of his senatorial term, in 1846, he gave 
himself up entirely to the practice of his profession, and never 
entered the public service again excepting as attorney-general of his 
state in 1853. After the death of Webster, he was the acknowledged 
leader of the Massachusetts bar, and his services were sought for by 
litigants in other states. 

In 1855 Mr. Choate suffered from an accident so severely that his 
health was seriously impaired, and in 1858 he was compelled to retire 
from professional labor. In search of restoration he sailed for 
Europe in the summer of 1859, but proceeded no further than Hali- 
fax, Nova Scotia, where he died on July 13, when he was about sixty 
years of age. In person Mr. Choate was tall and commanding. His 
face had a remarkable expression of intellectual vigor; his voice was 
rich, musical, and sjnnpathetic, and he was probably the most per- 
suasive pleader of his time. His utterances were exuberant and 
brilliant, at the same time powerful in carrying conviction, to the 
minds of others. He possessed consummate'tact and unerring judg- 
ment in the management of causes, and never made a mistake hiiii- 
self nor overlooked one in liis opponent in the examination of wit- 
nesses. . The leading men of the bar regarded with respect and 
admiration the great mind they saw beneatli some peculiarities of 
manner. 



• • T HAVE no volition in the matter; j^our duty is to give me orders. 
1 mine to obey." So wrote commandant Farragut to t-he secre- 
tary of the navy, in 1856, on receiving an intimation from him that; 
if.he would indicate his preference for a station, it would be granted. 
This sentence is a key to his whole public character, from his 



482 DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 



entrance into the navy as midsbipm^yi before he was ten years of 
age. He was born near Knoxville, Tenn., July 5, 1801. His fathel 
was a native of Minorca, and came to America in 1776, when he 
became an active soldier in the continental army. His early life 
was passed on the frontier. Capt, David Porter took charge of him 
when he was between nine and ten years of age, and on Dec. 17, 1810 
he was appointed a midshipman. He first served on the Essex, 
under Porter, and was with him on his long cruise to the Pacific 
ocean in 1812-13. Porter intrusted him with the command of a 
prize to be taken into Valparaiso, while he was yet a little boy. "I 
was sent as prize-master to the -Sarctey," wrote Farragut in after- 
years. "This was an important event in my life, and when it was 
decided that I was to take the ship to Valparaiso, I felt no little pride at 
finding myself in command at twelve years of age." He was engaged 
in the battle between the Essex and the Phoebe and Cherub, off Val- 
paraiso. 

Young Farragut was commissioned lieutenant in 1825, having been 
recommended for promotion three years before. Meanwhile he had 
distinguished himself by a cruise against pirates in the West Indies. 
In the sloop-of-war Vandalia he joined Ihe Americnn squadron 
on the Brazilian station, when he Wiis executive officer of the Natchez 
in 1833. He rose to commander in 1841, and was ordered to the 
sloop-of-war Deca/ur off the coast of Brazil. In 1847 he was placed 
in command of the sloop-of-war Saratoc/a. From 1851 to 1853 he 
was assistant-inspector of ordnance, and was placed in command of 
the navy-yard at Mare Island, near San Francisco, in 1854. Farragut 
was commissioned captain in the navy in 1855, and was placed in 
command of the steamship Brooklyn of the home squadron. 

Capt. Farragut was put in a very delicate position on the breaking 
out of the civil war. By nativity and by marriage of two wives 
in succession, he was identified with the slave-labor states. "When 
his country was assailed by its recreant children in the southern 
states, and scores of southern-born naval ofiicers deserted the old flag 
and Joined the enemies of the republic, Farragut did not hesitate a 
moment in choosing to defend the union, for he was a true patriot, 
owing his allegiance to the national government, not to the pretended 
petty sovereignty of a state. He took his family to a village on the 
Hudson river, and then went forth to give might}^ blows against the 
di-agonof rebellion. All through the four years' Avar that ensued he 
was the model commander wherever his flag was seen, whether on 
the Mississippi river or the gulf of Mexico, in his good wooden ship 
IJrtrtford. He led in the expedition against and capture of New 
Orleans, and in efforts to make the Mississippi free for the navigation 
of national vessels. He attempted to reduce Vicksburg, and took a 
conspicuous part in the attack on Port Hudson, the following year. 
For his services at New Orleans, and on the Mississippi above and 
below, he was thanked by Congress, and placed first on the list of 
rear-admirals soon afterwards created. He did gallant service on 
the coast of Texas, as commander of the Gulf squadron. His most 
brilliant achievement during the war was in Mobile l)ay at near the 
close of the summer of 1864. Lashed to a position among the shrouds 
of the Hartford, where he could oversee and command his whole 
squadron, he boldly sailed into the bay, fighting a fort, gun-boats. 



BENJAMIN PEIRCE. 483 



and a powerful ram, and every moment in danger of destruction by 
torpedoes. One of tliese destroyed an iron-clad gun-boat just in 
front of the Hartford. She filled and sunk in a few seconds, carry- 
ing down her commander and nearly all of her men. At that 
moment he felt that all was lost, but his first impulse was to appeal 
to heaven for guidance, and he prayed: "O God, who created man 
and gave him reason, direct me wluit to do. Shall I go on?" And 
it seemed as if a voice in answer commanded him to "Go on!" and 
lie cried out: "Four bells! Capt. Drayton, go ahead! Jouett, full 
speed !" and victory was the result. 

In Dec, 1864, he received the thanks of congress and was pro- 
moted to the rank of vice-admiral, which was created expressly for 
him. He was afterward commissioned admiral, which placed him 
at the head of the navy. In 1867-68, Admiral Farragut visited 
stations in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and was everywhere received 
with highest honors. He died at Portsmouth, N. H., on Aug. 14, 
1870, having served sixty years in the navy. A memorial monument 
to his niera()ry modeled by Launt Thompson was placed on the left 
of the chancel in the Church of the Incarnation, in New York; and 
a monument was erected by his famil)'' over his remains which rest 
in Woodlawn cemetery, in Westchester county, N. Y. Congress 
appropriated $20,000 for the erection of a colossal bronze statue, and 
gave the commission to Miss Vinnie Ream. A commission was also 
given by citizens of New York to Mr. St. Gaudeu to produce a 
statue of the admiral to be set up in that city. 



THE domain of science lost one of its most efficient laborers and 
brightest scholars when FroL Benjamin Peirce died at Cambridiie, 
Mass., Oct. 6, 1880. He was born at Salem, in that state, April 4, 1809, 
and graduated at Harvard College, at the age of twenty years. He 
became a tutor there in 1831; university professor in'mathematics 
and natural philosophy m 1833; and Perkins professor of astronomy 
and mathematics in 1843, in which position he continued until his 
death, a period of thirty-eight years. No person, excepting tutor 
Henry Flynt, of the class of 169*3, was ever so long connected with 
Harvard, professionally. In 1849 Prof. Peirce was appointed con- 
sulting astronomer to the American Epliemeris and Nautical Ahna- 
?iac. He was one of tlie scientific council to which was intrusted 
the organization of the Dudley Observatory, at Albany, in 1855. He 
assisted Prof. Bache in the coast Survey and rendered valuable aid in 
this great national work for several years. In 1867 he succeeded 
Prof. Bache as superintendent of the coast survey, but resigned the 
office in 1874. 

Prof. Peirce's labors in the realm of science have been incessant 
and most valuable. While he was a pupil of Dr. Bowditch, he read 
the proof-sheets of the translation of La Place's Mecanique Celeste. 



484 LUCRETIA MOTT. 



He undertook the publication of the "Cambridge Miscellany of 
Mathematics, Physics, and Astronomy," of which only five numbers 
appeared. Between 1836 and 1846 he prepared a series of mathemat- 
ical text-books which are used in Harvard College. His Boston 
lectures on the comet of 1843 aroused an interest which led to the 
foundation of the observatory at Cambridge; and his investigations 
relating to the discovery of Nepture by Leverrier, in 1846, attracted 
the attention of astronomers in Europe and America, and proved him 
to be a thinker of extraordinary power. In that paper, while he 
did not intimate that Leverrier's calculations had been erroneous, he 
assumed that both the French mathematician and the English astron- 
omer Adams had arrived at erroneous conclusions concerning the 
perturbations of Uranus, and demonstrated that the mass, the distance 
from the sun, and other characteristics of the real planet were entirely 
different from those assumed by them. He declared that the dis- 
covery of the p1an(!t by Galle nearly in the position pointed out by 
Leverrier was due to a happy accident rather than the necessary result 
of the mathematician's calculations. He discussed with great ability 
other astronomical questions, such as the nature of Saturn's rings. 
All his writings are characterized by singular directness, and his 
intellectual nature was most vigorous. He loved all that was beau- 
tiful in the world and revered everything of God's works, from the 
delicate flower to the ponderous planet. His latest productions were 
a course of Lowell lectures, on " Ideality in Science." 



LTJCRExi^ m:ott. 

U ''PRUTH for Authority; not Authority for Truth," was the form 
i of a favorite aphorism which Lucretia Mott wrote, in a fair 
round hand, on the back of a photographed portrait which she sent 
to the writer of this volume when she was eighty-six years of age. 
By the pi-incij^le formulated in this aphorism the career of this noble 
woman was always governed. It was a predominating element in 
her character. It was the light she folloAved: the inspirer of her 
courage to walk fearlessly in the path of duty prescribed by the light 
within — the conscience — Emmanuel, God with us. Her name was a 
synonym for a rare combination of Christian graces. Hers was a 
strong, sweet, and noble soul, ever guided by unswerving loyalty to 
truth and righteousness. 

Lucretia Mott's maiden name was Coffin, a descendant of one of 
the earliest settlers on Nantucket, where she was born on the 3d of 
Jan., 1793. Her parents removed to Boston, and when she was 
thirteen j-ears of age, she was sent to the " Nine Partners' " b©ard- 
ing-school, an institution established by the Friends, in Duchess 
county, N. Y., a few years before. There she was under the instruc- 
tion of Deborah Rodgers (afterwards Mrs. Jacob Willetts), who died 
in 1879 at the age of above ninety years. During her absence 
at that time, her parents removed to Philadelphia. She returned 



LUCRETIA MOTT. 



485 








home in 1809, and two years afterwards, when in her nineteenth 
year, she was married to James Mott, a young merchant, and a mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends, who formed a business partnersliip 
with his father-in-law. Anxious to be as useful as possible, Lucretia 
took chargeof a school in Pliiladelphia in 1817, and the next year she 
began to preach in the religious society to which she belonged. She 
was then twenty-five years of age. Her sweet voice, her fervid man- 
ner, her persuasive eloquence, and her words of wisdom always 
charmed and edified her hearers. She soon extended her labors, 
journeying through New England, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
parts of Virginia on religious visits, and preaching whenever oppor- 
tunity to do so was afforded. Everywhere and on all occasions she 
advocated the peaceable and benevolent principles of the Society of 
Friends or Quakers. She waged incessant battle against slavery, 
intemperance, and war with material weapons. When, by the minis- 
trations of Elias Hicks, who became a unitarian in theology, the 
Society of Friends became separated into two parts, the "Orthodox" 
and the " Hicksites," in 1837, Lucretia.adhered to the latter, and was 



486 LUCRETIx\ MOTT. 



a very able minister of the gospel among iliem through the remainder 

of her life. 

Mrs. Mott took an active part in the organization of the American 
Anti-Slavery Society at Philadelphia, in 1833, and was one of its 
ablest supporters. In 1840 she was chosen a delegate to the World's 
Anti-Slavery Convention held in London. Men had not then reached 
the happy era in modern civilization, now dawning, when women are 
admitted to an equality with men in human efforts of every kind, and 
Lucretia Mott was excluded from the seat of a delegate in that con- 
vention! But she was invited to a breakfast of which many persons, 
of high rank partook, some of whom had voted to exclude her from 
the convention. She thought it a good opportunity to say what she 
intended to in the convention, had she been admitted. Rising before 
the company, she gave a most fervid and eloquent address. At the 
beginning of her speech the high-toned guests were amazed at her 
presumption in giving utterance to her thoughts in that manner in 
such a presence; but before she had concluded, that amazement was 
changed to admiration, and her mission was then fulfilled. 

Mrs. Mott was always an earnest and consistent advocate of the 
rights of woman to participate in the duties and privileges of Amer- 
ican citizenship. She was an active member of the national conven- 
tion of women seeking to secure these rights for their sex, from the 
first one held at Genesee Falls in 1848 (at which her husband pre 
sided), until the last year of her life. She was permitted to live until 
some of her most earnest aspirations were gratified — the bonds 
stricken from the limbs of four million slaves; noble victories achieved 
by the champions of temperance; and to witness the opalescent glow 
of the dawning of the day when woman in society as in nature shall 
be recognized as the peer of man. She could say with abounding 
gratitude when the messenger came, " Now lettest thou thy servant 
depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy 
salvation." 

Mrs. Mott died on Nov. 11, 1880, at her home in Philadelphia. 
Husband and children had departed before, but no funereal gloom 
shadowed her spirit, for she was in sympathy with all sufferers, and 
a briglit, beckoning hope alwaj^s made her cheerful. During all 
her public ministrations, Lucretia Mott never neglected her home 
duties. She was an exemplary old-fashioned housekeeper, and her 
four daughters were brought up to be the same. The atmosphere of 
her home was almost ideal in its peace and harmony. She leaned 
trustingly upon her husband as the stronger being. His was a nature 
similar to her own, but he was a very silent man. She was fond of 
all domestic occupations, and at the age of eighty-six she could 
thread her owai needle with ease. She labored much for the poor; 
distributing comforts among them with a lavish hand, while she 
bestowed very little upon herself. She was fond of bright things, 
and had a piano, paintings, and warm colors in the carpels and cur- 
tains of her home. 

Mrs. Mott was of small and slight stature and figure, and her face 
had the charm of delicate and regular features, combined with great 
strength of character. Her eyes were very bright, and expressive of 
great intelligence, appearing gray ordinarily, but when animated in 
conversation or by some strong emotion, their color deepened and 
appeared almost black. 



EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN. 487 



ONE of the most accomplished scholars and earnest, studious, and 
eloquent pulpit orators of our time died in the city of New York 
on Sunday evening, Dec. 26th, 1880. That eminent divine was 
Edwin H. Chapin, d.d., ll.d., a lineal descendant of the first of 
that name who emigrated to America, and who settled in Massaclui- 
selts in 1636. Tlie family is a ministerial one, there having been no 
less than sixteen clergymen among the descendants of the emigrant. 
Mr. Chapin was born at Union Village, Washington county, N. Y,, 
Dec. 29, 1814. He began the study of law, but soon abandoned it 
for a pursuit more consonant with his tastes. When he was about 
twenty-one years of age, he was one of the editors of the " Magazine 
and Advocate," at Utica, N. Y., and there began to preach. At the 
age of twenty-three he was ordained a minister in the Universalist 
church. His eloquence attracted large audiences, and his fame as a 
speaker went abroad. Soon after his ordination he was called to 
the pastorate of the Independent Christian church in Richmond, Va., 
which was composed of Universalists and Unitarians. Mr. Chapin 
was so successful there, that, in 1840, the Universalists of Charles- 
town, Mass., called him to take charge of their growing church there. 
He labored with great success in that position six years, having among 
liis hearers many of the leading men of intellect in Charlestown. Social 
reforms of every kind found in him a powerful advocate, and when 
the lyceum lecture system was springing into vigorous life, Mr, 
Chapin was the most popular platform speaker of the day. 
Crowds flocked to the lectures of the eloquent divine, and he, more 
than any other speaker, made the lyceum popular among all classes. 

In 1842 Mr. Chapin was chosen a member of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Education; and before he was thirty years of age, 
he was selected to preach the annual election sermon before the legis- 
lature. In 1846 he was called to share the pulpit, in Boston, with 
Rev. Hosea Ballon, the founder of the Universalist church in Amer- 
ica. Two years later he received a call to the pastorate of the 
Church of the Divine Paternity in the city of New York. He 
accepted the call, and j)reached his first sermon there, before a 
crowded congregation, m May, 1848, and remained the beloved 
shepherd of that flock until his death, a period of more than thirty 
years. His relations with his people, official and social, ripened into 
an attachment that has few parallels in the history of religious organi- 
zations. 

In 1849 Dr. Chapin attended the peace convention at Frankfort- 
on-the-Main, where he gained the reputation of the wisest and most 
eloquent speaker in that assembly of able men. During his long 
ministerial labor in New York he was an ardent and most efficient 
sympathetic worker in any field of labor for the good of his fellow- 
men. He was ever ready to grapple fearlessly with wrong in every 
form; and when the encroachments of the slave power upon the 
rights of human nature became intolerable, no man's voice was louder 
or more certain than his in denunciation of the entire slave system. 
When the flames of civil war were bursting forth in 1860-61, and tlie 



488 EDWm HUBBELL CHAPIN. 



insurgents at the south and their sympathizers at the north attempted 
to muzzje the press and the pulpit, Dr. Chapin's pulpit was a citadel 
of defiance, and the very few members of liis congregation who 
resented his denunciations with rude demonstrations soon became 
quiet and ultimately loyal. His fervid patriotism and his rare elo- 
quence drew to his church every Sunday a congregation composed 
of representatives of the best, the freest, and most pi ogressive ele- 
ments of metropolitan life in the north. Persons living at a distance 
timed their visits to New York so as to include a Sunday at the 
Church of the Divine Paternity, listening to the eloquent divine. To 
his arduous pulpit labors Dr. Chapiu, for many years, added the 
exhausting toils of a public lecturer during the winter months. 

In 1866 Dr. Chapin's church first occupied their new edifice at 
Fifth avenue and Forty -fifth street, when the pastor's salary wn& 
fixed at ten thousand dollars a year. Under liis auspices the Chapin 
Home for the Aged Vv as erected in 1869, at a cost of over eighty thou- 
sand dollars. Dr. Chapin was one of the most industrious of men. 
He prepared his sermons with great care, and they were models of 
English composition. They were scholarly, rich in original thought 
and expression, and were always delivered by a voice of rare power. 
Few clergymen were so well versed in English literature and the- 
ology. He was a profound student and an exhaustive reader. He 
fairly devoured books, and wherever he was, at home or on the wing 
of travel, he was seldom seen without a book in his hand. His 
library of about eighteen thousand volumes is regarded as one of the 
most valuable private collections of books in the English language in 
our country. By his unceasing mental labor a robust physical con- 
stitution was undermined, and he died of asthenia. For two years 
he declined in strength of mind and body, and finally died suddenly. 
Dr. Chapin received the honorary degree of d.d. from Harvard 
College, and of ll.d. from Tufft's College. The list of his public 
works is long, for he was an able and ready writer as well as a great 
preacher. His writings are chiefly on religious and benevolent sub- 
jects. 

Many ministers of other denominations were present at Dr. Cha- 
pin's funeral, and addresses were delivered by Rev. Her\ry Wai'd 
Beecher, Dr. Armitage, and Robert Collyer. 



JAMES ABRAM GAKFIELD. 



489 




JAMES ABEAM GARFIELD. 

PROBABLY oiir country has never produced a more perfectly 
rounded character — ph3-sically, intellectually.and morally, — than 
that of James A. Garfield, who fell by the hand of an assassin, in 1881. 
He was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November 19, 1831, and was 
left fatherless when he was a small child. His mother (living in 1886) 
molded the character of this her youngest boy; and when Ihat boy, 
nearly fifty years of age, was inaugurated President of the United States, 
in 1881, he acknowledged his indebtedness to her, by kissing her vener- 
able cheeks when he had taken the oath of office in the presence of 
thousands of his fellow-citizens assembled at the National Capital. 

Garfield's early 3^ears were spent in alternate manual labor in the warm 
season, and in attendance at school in winter. For a while he was the 
driver of a team of horses on the Ohio Canal. He began the study of 
Latin at the Geauga Seminary, and in 1851, entered the Western Re- 
serve Eclectic Institute, at Hiram, Ohio, where he was both a student 
and a tutor. He entered Williams College, Mass., as a junior, and 
graduated with distinguished honors in 1856, when he espoused the 
cause of the Republican part}'', then just organized, and became a noted 
"stump speaker" in the campaign that year. He gave his first vote 
for the candidates of that party, and continued fealty to it as long as 
he lived. 

Mr. Garfield studied law, and entered that profession. Meanwhile he 
was a professor in the Institute at Hiram, and in 1857 he was its Presi- 



490 " JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 

dent. In 1859 he was elected to the Ohio State Senate, and in that body 
he exerted a powerful influence in directing 'public sentiment against 
the secessionists of the slave-labor States. He did much also toward 
arousing the people to adopt vigorous measures for the defense of the 
imperiled Republic. 

When the Civil War broke out Mr. Garfield took the field as soon as 
he could adjust his affairs. He was commissioned a brigadier-general, 
and reported to General Buell, at Cincinnati, late in 1861, when he was 
sent, with three regiments, to drive the rebels, under Humphrey Marshall, 
out of Eastern Kentucky. It was speedily done, when he joined Buell. 
Early in April he participated in the battle of Shiloh, and in May, in 
the siege of Corinth. He joined the Army of the Cumberland, under 
Rosecrans, and became his chief of staff. Garfield urged that general 
forward into Georgia, and took a conspicuous part in the severe battle 
of Chickamauga, where by his wisdom and courage he saved the Na- 
tional forces from utter defeat. 

While on this service. General Garfield was elected a representative of 
his district in the Western Reserve in Congress,and took his seat, in De- 
cember, 1863. His brief military career had been brilliant ; his career in 
Congress was more brilliant. His prodigious knowledge of facts, his 
almost unrivaled oratory, his untiring industry, his rare judgment, 
and his grand statesmanship, made him an acknowledged leader in the 
various battles fought in committees and on the fioor, in matters of 
finance, revenue, education ; indeed everything. He was fully equal to 
any position in which he might be placed. He was one of the prominent 
republican members of the electoral commission appointed by Congress 
in 1877. General Garfield's record during his long service in the house of 
Representatives is without a blemish. The Ohio Legislature chose him, 
in 1870, to represent that State in the Senate of the United States : and 
in the Republican National Convention at Chicago, in June, 1880. where 
he was the firm advocate of John Sherman's nomination for the Presi- 
dency of the United States, to his utter astonishment Garfield him- 
self received the nomination for that high office. He was elected by a 
decided majority in the electoral college. 

Cxeneral Garfield was inaugurated President of the United States on 
the 4th of March, 1881. His inaugural address inspired with hope and 
courage the best portion of the people of our country, and he entered 
upon the duties of his high office with great vigor. After the lapse of 
four months, as he was about to leave the railroad station at Washing- 
ton for a tour in New England, he was shot by a cowardly assassin on 
July 2, 1881. His physical vigor and skillful medical attendance sus- 
tained liim in great suffering,which he bore with mighty fortitude, for 
eighty days. He had been taken tenderly to the seashore at Long 
Branch, N. J., and there he died on September 19, 1881. 

During his long suffering. President Garfield's condition excited the 
deep sympathy of the civilized world. At his death, the monarchs of Eng- 
land, Belgium, and Spain, ordered their respective courts to wear 
mourning for a week ; and the day of his funeral was solemnly observed, 
with tokens of grief, in every city, village, and hamlet, in our Republic. 

In his early manhood Garfield married Lucretia Rudolph, a charming 
and fitting companion in his journey of life ; and the people of the United 
States testified their love and reverence for him and respect for his 
widow, by creating a fund of more than $300,000 for her sole use and 
benefit. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 



491 




HENEY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 

LIKE Emerson, Longfellow possessed a gentle, loving nature. He 
was conscientious in all his relations to his kind. His heart was 
tender, his industry was untiring, and all through life he was faitliful 
in the use of the talents God had given him. His childhood was spent 
in a delightful home, and all the surroundings of his youth were pro- 
pitious, liis father was Stephen Longfellow,an eminent lawyer of Port- 
land, Maine, and their dwelling-place was in a spacious mansion ; but 
at the time of the poet's birth, iiis parents were sojourning at the house 
of Captain Samuel Stephenson, overlooking the harbor, and now stand- 
ing at the corner of Fore and Hancock Streets. 

'Mr. Longfellow was born on February 27, 1807. He was prepared 
for college at the Portland Academy, and when between fourteen and 
fifteen years of age, he and his elder brother, Stephen, entered Bowdoin 
College at Brunswick. He was very studious, and had not much incli- 
nation to engage in out-of-door sports, yet he loved to be among the green 
hills of his native State, and the numerous islands that stud the harbor 
of his native town. During his college life he wrote poetry of great ex- 
cellence. At an annual examination in his sophomore year, his transla- 
tion of an Ode of Horace led to his being thought of as a candidate for 
a Professorship of Modern Languages then in contemplation. Some of 
the best of Mr. Longfellow's earlier poems that have been published, 
were written while he was a student at Bowdoin, — notably the Hymn 
of the Mm-aman Nuns. He graduated with high honors in 1825. 



492 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 

Young Longfellow studied law in the office of his father for a while, 
but a Professorship of Modern Languages having been establislied in 
Bowdoin College, he was chosen to fill its chair. He at once proceeded 
to Europe to prepare himself for its duties, in 1826. He visited France, 
Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, and England. He returned in 1829, and 
entered upon the duties of his professorship. 

In 1836 Mr. Longfellow was appointed Professor of Modern Lan- 
guages and Literature in Harvard University, and again he went to Eu- 
rope and spent a year in preparation for its duties. He had married, 
in 1831, Miss Mary Storer Potter, a lovely and accomplished young 
woman, and now they made their abode in Cambridge in the Cragie man- 
sion, in which Washington had his headquarters in 1775. There he 
lived the remainder of his life. For a little over seventeen years Mr. 
Longfellow discharged the duties of his professorship, resigning in 1854. 
He had been not only professor, but the chief of the instructors. There 
were generally about two hundred students in his department, with an 
average of half a dozen instructors. He had an oversight of all ; and 
he delivered lectures which were specimens of brilliant rhetoric, and 
always delightful to the students, 

Mr. Longfellow's real fame as a poet began in 1839, when his Voices 
of the Night appeared. It has been observed that "The solemn mono- 
tone of the Psalm of Life was heard around the world ;" and that Foot- 
steps of Angels and The Light of the Stars bear a spiritual as well as 
earthly beauty. His Evangeline (1847), his Oolden Legend (1851), his 
Song of Hiaicatha (1855), and his Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), are 
familiar delights to cultivated people at home and abroad. Indeed it is 
said that Longfellow was such a favorite author in England that he is 
better known there than in the United States, 

After a happy married life of a very few years, Mr, Longfellow lost 
the wife of his young manhood by death; and in 1843 he was married 
to Miss Fanny Elizabeth Appleton, the heroine of his Hyperion,v^\\o, in 
July, 1861, was burned to death by the accidental ignition of her ample 
flowing muslin garments by a lighted match. This event cast a shade 
over his subsequent life, for he loved this noble woman with intense de- 
votion. He never, in any of his poems, alluded to the terrible tragedy. 
He might truthfully have said, in the words of Lowell, — 

"I came not of the race 
Wlio hawk their sorrows in the market-place," 

Late in life Mr, Longfellow gathered a collection of Poems of Places, 
and a Book of Sonnets; and he completed a translation of Dante's Bi- 
mna Comedia, of 18,000 lines. His Ultima Thule gave premonition 
that he considered his life-work nearly done. Very little from his pen 
appeared afterwards. In February, 1882, the Maine Historical Society, 
of which he was a member, celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of 
his birth. He was too feeble at that time to bear the journey to the 
meeting to which he was invited. It was a grand ovation, such as was 
never before given to an American author. He lived less than a month 
afterwards, dying on March 24, 1882. Rev. Stephen Longfellow, a 
brother of the poet, has written and published an admirable biography 
of his distinguished kinsman. 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 493 



KALPH WALDO EMEESON. 

Mr. Emerson was and is an enigma, puzzling metaphysical critics. 
Tlie name of no American writer is more familiar to the average Amer- 
ican reader than that of Ralph Waldo Emerson ; and yet, there is, proba- 
bly, not one so eminent in the literary world wlio is so little known and 
judged by familiarity with his works by the average American reader. 

Critics differ widely in tlieir estimates of Mr. Emerson's character. 
Some regard him as one of the profoundest thinkers, and as a model 
poet: others have unjustly pronounced him a sciolist, — an unsubstan- 
tial support to any theor}^ or opinion, because he never paused to har- 
monize his thoughts or convictions. He never defined the fundamen- 
tal ))asis of his speculations. His uttered thoughts charmed, arrested, 
and excited the mental faculties of his readers, but they did not satisfy, 
or settle any question conclusively. Mr. Emerson was a most sincere 
searcher after truth, and was essentially an original and independent 
genius, belonging to no school of thought or opinion. Mr. Emerson 
Was born in Boston, Mass., on May 25, 1803. He was of a clerical lin- 
eage, being the eighth in succession of a consecutive line of Puritan 
ministers. His father was Rev. William Emerson, pastor of the First 
Church, in Boston, and died when Ralph Avas seven years of age. The 
son entered Harvard College as a student in 1817, and graduated in 1821, 
with honor. His tastes were literary rather than scholastic. After he 
left college, he was for five years engaged with his brother in conduct- 
ing a school for girls in Boston. Meanwhile he studied theology, and 
was "approbated to preach" when he was twenty-three years of age. 

In 1829 Mr. Emerson was ordained as colleague of Rev. Henry Ware, 
in the Second Unitarian Church in Boston. He did not hold this posi- 
tion long, for his independent thinking led him to reject some of the 
ordinances of the church. He was especially unwilling to administer 
the Lord's Supper. He resigned both the pulpit and the ministr}^ The 
parting of the popular young preacher with the congregation was mu- 
tually affactionate. 

In 1832 Mr. Emerson went to Europe, and on his return in the winter 
of 1833-'34,he began his career as a lecturer upon various subjects. His 
biograpliical discourses on eminent men — Michael Angelo, Luther, 
Milton, George Fox, and Edmund Burke,— attracted great attention, and 
he drew crowded houses. His lectures on the last two persons named 
were published in the JVoj-th American Remew. This business Mr. Em- 
erson pursued with success for many years. In many places he was a 
great favorite, speaking in some instances in the same place, by invita- 
tion, more than a score of times in the same Lyceum course. 

In 1835 Mr. Emerson married, and took up his residence at Concord, 
Mass., where he continued to live until his death, enjo^ying the love and 
reverence of his neighbors, for his sweetness of character and purity of 
life endeared him to all who knew him. He was, for long years, the 
foremost character in the place, and there he was visited b}^ distinguished 
scholars, and philosophers, American aud foreign. He was of no sect 
in religion or politics. His address to the Senior class of the Cambridge 
Divinity School, in 1838, created no small stir in literary and theological 
circles. 

Mr. Emerson's first book, entitled Nature, appeared in 1836. Some of 
his enthusiastic admirers regarded it as opening a new era of thought 



494 RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 

in America, while by others it was sharply criticized. In 1841 appeared 
his Methods of Nature, in which the p^uliar qualities of his mind were 
more fully developed. Its freshness and beaut,y w'on for him many admir- 
ers. A nmltitude of his countrymen and not a few scholars abroad 
regarded him as a prophet of a new intellectual dispensation ; and from 
his writings the transcendental movement in New England received im- 
pulse and direction. Jlie Dial, a quarterly magazme, was begun in 
1840, with Miss Margaret Fuller as editor. She was assisted by Mr. Em- 
erson, the now (1883) venerable A. Bronson Alcott, W. H. Channing, 
Theodore Parker, and George Ripley. It was the receptacle and dif- 
f user of the thoughts of the transcendentalists, and continued four years, 
the last two of which Mr. Emerson was its editor. In 1841-46, Mr. 
Emerson's collected essays and poems were published. In 1847 he vis- 
ited England, where he was received with great warmth. There he made 
the acquaintance of Carlisle, and they forn^.ed a friendship which en- 
dured through life. In The Conduct of Life, published in 1860, Mr. 
Emerson brought clearly to view the lofty principles which underlie and 
pervade all that he has written. He published a volume of his poems 
in 1867 ; and in 1869 appeared his prose works complete. A remark- 
able production of his mind appeared in the North American Review 
in 1878, which is regarded as the richest fruit of his broad culture. His 
addresses in the Divinity Chai)el at Cambridge, in 1879, were published in 
the Unitarian Eeview,\n 1880, under tlie title of "The Preacher." These 
were the closing utterences of Mr. Enu^rson's life. His health now grad- 
ually failed, and he died on April 27, 1882. He was then engaged in the 
revision of liis manuscripts for the press. His remarkable correspond- 
ence with Carlisle has since been published. 

During his whole literary career, Mr. Emerson took a deep interest in 
passing events ; and at an early period lie became one of the most fer- 
vent advocates of the emancipation of the slaves. So early as during 
his brief labors as a pastor, in Boston, he opened his pulpit to protesters 
against the horrible system ; and he was one of the signers to the first 
call of a convention in Massachusetts, in 1850, to secure for women 
equality with men as citizens and voters. 

As to his religious affinities, Mr. Emerson thus defined his position|to 
Mr. Alcott: "I do not care to classify myself with any painstaking 
accurac,y Avith this sect or with that ; but if I am to have any appellation 
at alKof a religious kind. I prefer to be called a Christian theist. You must 
not leave out the word Christian, for to leave out that is to leave out 
everything." And in" The Preacher " referred to, he said: "Unlovely, 
nay frightful, is the solitude of the soul which is Avithout God in the 
world. To see men pursuing, in faith, their varied action, warm-hearted, 
providing for their children, loving their friends, performing their prom- 
ises,— Avhat are they to this child, houseless, fatiierless, aimless Cain, the 
man who hears only the sound of his own footsteps in God's resplendent 
creation ? " 



PETER COOPER. 



495 




PETER COOPER, 

Inventor, Manufacturer, and Philanthropist. Tliese are titles given to 
Peter Cooper, one of the most distinguislied citizens of our Republic, 
whose useful life extended over nearly a century of years. These char- 
acteristics constitute the proudest patent of genuine nobility. 

Peter Cooper was born in New York city, on February 12, 1791. His 
father was an officer in the Continental Army ; his mother was a daugh- 
ter of John Campbell, wlio was also an officer during the old war for In- 
dependence, and was an alderman of the city of New York. 

Peter received a meager English Education, and at an early age began 
to learn hat-making, with his father. He was industrious and studious, 
ardently seeking knowledge from books and personal observations. He 
grew up a most earnest young man. In very early life, experiencing the 
hindrances of a lack of education, he resolved that if he should prosper, 
he would devote a portion of his means and energy to the assistance of 
young men in the pursuit of knowledge. 

At the age of seventeen years, Peter Cooper was apprenticed to a 
coach-maker. During his apprenticeship he invented a mortising ma- 
chine which was of great use and profit to his master. Soon after his 
majority, he engaged in the manufacture of patent machines for shear- 
ing cloth, and prospered during the war of 1812. At its close the business 
was broken up, when young Cooper engaged in cabinet-making. Not 
being successful in this, he became a grocer, in which business he con- 
tinued about three years, and then began the manufacture of glue and 
isinglass. This business he carried on for more than thirty years. Mean- 



496 PETER COOPER. 



while his attention had been called to iron manufacture, and about 1828 
he bought a large tract of land within the city limits of Baltimore, and 
established the Cantar Iron Works. There, in 1830, he built, after his 
own design, a small tractor engine, which drew a car with a number of 
Baltimoreans out to tlie Relay House, on a trial-trip. It was the first 
American-built locomotive put in use on a railroad ; and this track 
was the beginning of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. 

In 1845 Mr. Cooper removed his iron works to Trenton, N. J., where 
he established the largest rolling-mill in the United States, and manufac- 
tured railroad iron and iron beams for fireproof buildings. 

Mr. Cooper was one of the founders of the system of ocean telegraphy, 
having been one of the six capitalists who, at the home of Cyrus W. 
Field, formed the first Atlantic Telegraph Compan3',in 1854. Mr. Cooper 
was its first President. He also became deeply interested in the land 
telegraphs of the country. 

In his native city Mr. Cooper was always active in the promotion of 
ever}" good work for public benefit. He served in the Common Council, 
in both branches, and was an earnest advocate of the Croton Aqueduct ; 
and was one of the earliest trustees of the Public School Society, and 
afterwards a Commissioner of Education. His success in business finally 
enabled him to found an institution for the benefit of the working classes 
of New York, both masculine and feminine, and to erect for its use a 
building at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. That institution 
is "The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art." The 
building occupies the block between Third and Fourth Avenues and 
Seventh and Eighth streets. This building and its equipments of every 
kind for gratuitous instruction in Science and Art, he conveyed to the 
city by a deed of trust, for the use of the working classes, forever. His 
munificence in sustaining the institution has been most remarkable. 
Besides large expenditures upon it about every year, he gave it, on the 
occasion of his Golden Wedding, in 1863, $10,000; on'' his eightieth 
birthday he gave it $150,000: and on his ninetieth birthday, $40,000, 
and receipts in full for $70,000 which he had expended upon it. "The 
Cooper Union" is the crowning glory of Peter Cooper's long life, — the 
realization of a dream of his youth. 

Mr. Cooper steadily refused nominations for any political office other 
than municipal, until 1876, when he was eighty-five years of age. He 
then accepted a nomination for the office of President of the United 
States, from a party in a hopeless minority, known as the "Greenback 
Party,"— an organization which advocates legal tender paper currency. 
He made a vigorous canvas, but was defeated, of course. 

In 1813 Mr. Cooper married Miss Sarah Bedell, of Hempstead, L. I., 
by whom he had six children. Four of them died in childhood : the 
other two (the late Mayor, Edward S. Cooper, and Mrs. Abraham Hew- 
itt) now (1886) survive him. Mrs. Cooper died in 1869. She was fol- 
lowed by her husband on April 4, 1883, whose death was sincerely 
mourned by every class of citizens. His private benefactions for the 
relief of the destitute poor were multitudinous. He was a Christian in 
the highest sense. In theology he was a Unitarian, and he was a mem- 
ber of All Saints' Church. 



CARDINAL McCLOSKEY. 



407 




CARDINAL McCLOSKEY. 

A VERY saintly man was John McCloskey, the Roman CathoUc 
archbishop of New York and the first American cardinal. His 
parents M^ere well-to-do people who came to America from Derry 
Coimty, Ireland, and settled in the then little village of Brooklyn. 
There their first child l)orn in America first saw the light of earth on 
the 20th of March, 1810. He breathed his last sigh at his residence 
on Madison avenue, New York, at midnight, on October 8-9, 1884. 
He was baptized in St. Peter's Church, Barclay street, New York. 
His father died when he was ten j-ears of age. His mother, left 
with a competency, afforded him a liberal education. He finished 
his secular studies at Mount St. Mary's College, at Emmettsbur^, 
Maryland, where he was graduated with higiiest honors in 1827, 
at the age of seventeen years. Then he prepared for the ministry, 
and was ordained a priest by Bishop Du Bois, in St. Patrick's 
Cathedral, New Y^ork, early in 1834. Late in the same year he went 
to Europe to perfect his theological studies, where he remained 
three years, a part of the time in France and part of the time in 
Rome. On his return he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph's 
32 



o 



498 WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 

Church, which position he filled for seven years, when he was called 
to the presidency of St. John's College, at Fordham, New York, 
which was organized in 1841. There he remained about a year, 
when, preferring the oflSce of pastor, he resumed his charge of St. 
Joseph's. 

In 1844, when this learned young clergyman was only thirty- four 
years of age, he was consecrated coadjutor to Bishop Hughes, but 
continued his pastorate of St. Joseph's. When the diocese of 
Albany was created, in 1847, he was transferred thither as its head. 
There were then only forty churches and a few priests in the new 
diocese; when he left it, seventeen years afterward, there were in 
the diocese one hundred and thirteen churches, eight chapels, fifty- 
four mission stations, eighty-five missionaries, three academies for 
boys and one for girls, six orphan asylums and fifteen parochial 
schools. 

On the death of Archbishop Hughes, in 1864, Dr. McCloskey 
became his successor, and filled the exalted station with great ability 
and increased zeal. The magnificent cathedral on Fifth avenue 
was then a-building, and was an object of his special care. He 
went to Europe in 1874, chiefly to look after the construction of its 
altars, the statues and the stained glass windows and other interior 
decorations of the sanctuary. To this work he contributed about 
$30,000 of his own income. 

In the consistory held at the Vatican on the 15th of March, 1875, 
Archbishop McCloskey was elevated to the high dignity of cardinal. 
The ceremony of imposing the heretta took place at St. Patrick's 
Cathedral in April following. The celebrant on that occasion was 
the Archbishop of Baltimore, who, in 1886, was created the second 
American cardinal. The Church found in Cardinal McCloskey a 
most zealous and efficient lender. 

In person he was above the medium height, thin and erect. His 
face beamed with a kindly and benevolent spirit. He was a man 
of gi'eat energy, and sleepless vigilance in the performance of his 
dut3^ yet he always sought the most unostentatious manner of doing 
it. He provoked no conflicts and offered no opinions, but with 
humility and prayerfuluess he toiled on in the sphere of his own 
duty. 



WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCE:. 

In the winning of victory for the National troops at the decisive 
battle of Gettysburg, General AV. S. Hancock was a conspicuous 
actor. That struggle occurred on the soil of his native State, Pennsyl- 
vania. He was born in Montgomery County on St. Valentine's day, 
1824. He entered the West Point Military Academy as a cadet in 
1840, where he was graduated with the brevet of a second lieuten- 
ant in 1844. He was commissioned a full lieutenant in 1846, and first 
lieutenant in 1853. In 1855 he was attached to the quartermaster's 
department, with the rank of captain, and M^as promoted to major 
in the same department soon afterward. Young Hancock served 
gallantly in the latter part of the war of the United States with 



WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. 499 

Mexico. In the battles of San Antonio, Cherubusco, Contreras, Mo- 
lino del Rey and the assault on the city of Mexico, he displayed con- 
spicuous courage and ability, and received his first promotion. FroD" 
1848 to 1855 he served with his regiment in the West. He was en 
gaged against the Seminoles, in Florida, and served in Kansas durint^, 
a portion of the quasi civil war there. At the outbreak of the great 
Civil War in 1861, he was at Los xingelos, California, as chief quarter- 
master of the Southern District. Relieved from duty there, at his 
own request, he went to Washington and applied for active duty in 
the field. He was assigned to the position of chief quartermaster 
under General Anderson in Kentucky, but before he entered upon 
his duties he received the commission (September 23, 1861) of a brig- 
adier-general of volunteers. He afterward joined the Army of the 
Potomac, and from that time until the close of the war his career 
forms a notable part of the history of that army. During the winter 
of 1861-62 he commanded a brigade in Virginia. In the spring of 
1862 he accompanied General McClellan to the Virginia peninsula, 
and took an important part in the seven days' battle near Richmond. 
For his services there he received several brevets and was recom- 
mended by McClellan for promotion to major-general. .It was done 
in November, 1862. 

In the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Clian- 
cellorsville and Gettysburg, General Hancock's services were con- 
spicuous; so, also, were his services in Grant's campaigns against 
Richmond, which resulted in the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. 
For his services at Gettysburg (where he was severely wounded) 
General Hancock received the thanks of Congress. In the winter 
of 1863-64 he was engaged in the recruiting service in the North, 
where his great popularity made him very successful. While engaged 
in the operations against Richmond, he was commissioned a briga- 
dier-general in the regular army on the 12tli of August, 1864. 

In November he was selected to organize the first army corps of 
veterans. In February, 1865, he was assigned to the conunand of the 
Middle Military Division, and in July to that of the Middle Depart- 
ment. In August, 1866, he was transferred to the command of the 
Department of Missouri. He had relinquished his volunteer com- 
mission and been promoted to major-general of the regular army. 
From September, 1867, until March, 1868, he was in command of the 
Department of the Gulf. From March, 1868, to March, 1869, he com- 
manded the Military Division of the Atlantic. From 1869 to 1872 
he was the supreme commander of the Military Division of Dakota, 
and was then again placed in command of the Division of the 
Atlantic with his headquarters at Governor's Island in the harbor of 
New York, which position he held until his death, which occurred 
on the 29th of Octo])er, 1885. 

General Hancock declined the Democratic nomination for Governor 
of Pennsylvania in 1869, but accepted from the same party the nom- 
ination for President of the United States in June, 1880. He was 
defeated at the election in the fall. General Hancock Avas a large, 
well-proportioned and handsome man. His last conspicuous appear- 
ance in public was as marshal at the funeral services at New York 
city, in honor of General Grant. 



500 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 




ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 

The career of the distinguished soldier and civilian, whose por- 
trait is dei)icted above, illustrates in a remarkable degree the genius 
of our political and social institutions, which give equal freedom to 
every citizen to acquire ])rominence in any pursuit in life. He was 
born in obscurity in the town of Point Pleasant, Ohio, on the 27tli of 
April, 1822, and rose by the force of his own merits and genius to 
the highest military distinction; and the first and only civil office 
he ever held was the highest in the gift of the people, the Presidency 
of our Republic. At the age of seventeen years he became a cadet 
at the West Point Military Academy, where he was graduated in 
1842, brevetted second lieutenant, and assigned to the Fourth In- 
fantry, He was engaged in every battle in the war with Mexico, 
excepting Buena Vista (when he was ill), and received two brevets, 
for gallantry. He remained in the army eleven years, when, having 
reached the grade of captain, he resigned, and was engaged in farm- 
ing near St. Louis, Missouri, for several years. In 1848 he married 
Julia, a daughter of Frederick Dent, a prominent merchant of St. 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRAKT. 50I 



Louis. In 1860 he entered into the business of a leather manufac- 
turer and dealer at Galena, Illinois, with his father, Jesse Grant. 

Grant was entirely unknown to public men when the Civil War 
was begun in 1861. He was then thirty-nine years of age. Presi- 
dent Lincoln's tirst call for troops in the spring of that year kindled 
Grant's patriotism, and four days afterward he was drilling a com- 
pany of volunteers at Galena. He offered his services to the adjutant- 
general of his state. He received no repl}^; but the governor em- 
ployed him in organizing volunteer troops. A little more than a 
month later he was appointed colonel of an Illinois regiment of in- 
fantry. He reported to General Pope, in Missouri, in June, and was 
commissioned a brigadier-general of volunteers in August. That 
promotion was unexpected by him. In September he was placed in 
command of the Southeast District of Missouri, with headquarters at 
Cairo. Without orders he seized Paducah (Septemljcr 6), at the mouth 
of the Tennessee River, which commanded tlie navigation of that 
stream and the Ohio, By this timely and masterly stroke he secured 
the State of Kentucky to the Union. Early in November he broke 
up a Confederate Camp at Belmont, opposite Columbus. Thus he 
prevented the passage of reinforcements from Kentucky for the 
Confederates in Missouri. He carried off artillery and 200 prisoners. 
Early in February, 1862, Grant moved up the Tennessee with a land 
and naval force — a flotilla of gunboats — and captured Fort Henry. 
Then he attacked Fort Donelson, on the high bank of the Cumberland 
River, and, after three days' severe fighting, captured it. It was 
sarrendered unconditionally, on the 16th of" February, with 14,628 
men, a large number of cannon and small-arms, with ammunition 
and stores. This triumph secured to the government the control of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, Grant was made a major-general and 
placed in command of the district of West Tennessee. Moving 
toward Corinth early in April his troops encountered Confederates, 
in force, at Siiiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, where he won a victory on 
the 7tli, He desired to attempt to capture the Confederates at 
Corinth, but was restrained by his superior, General Halleck. When, 
soon after, the latter was made general-in-chief, Grant succeeded 
him in the command of the Department of the Tennessee. 

In the spring of 1863 Grant was allowed to carry out his favorite 
project of freeing the Mississippi of military obstructions. He moved 
upon the stronghold of Vicksburg after some victories elsewhere, and 
took possession of it on the 4tli of July, with 30,000 prisoners. 

The navigation of the great river was now free from the Ohio to 
the sea. Grant was commissioned a major-general in the regular 
army, and placed in command of all the forces in the Mississippi 
valley. He won great victories near Chattanooga in the autumn, 
and in February, 1864, he was made general-in-chief of all the 
armies, with the title of lieutenant-general. Then he began the 
grand movements which resulted in the overthrow of the Confeder- 
ates in the South, the fall of Richmond, the dispersion of the Confed 
erate government, the surrender of the two great Confederate armies 
under Lee and Johnston, early in April, and the end of the war. 
Grant's magnanimity toward the vanquished Confederates was so 
marked that he won the gratitude and profound respect of the 
best men among them. 



502 HORATIO SEYMOUR, LL.D. 



General Grant had just begun to quietly superintend the disband- 
ing of the great armies at Washingtoif, when President Lincoln was 
assassinatecl. Tlie Lieutenant-General barely escaped the same fate. 
Vice-President Johnson was inaugurated President, and soon became 
hostile to Congress. His conduct produced wide-spread anxiety. 
The people turned to Grant, the general-in-chief, with trusting con- 
fidence to save them from the perils of revolution. He had the 
courage and the wisdom to obey Congress rather than the unwise 
president, and so averted impending disaster. In grateful recogni- 
tion of his marvellous public services, the people elected General 
Grant chief magistrate of the republic in 1869, which position 
he occupied eight years, and effected a restored Union. He then 
retired to private life, and actively engaged in railroad and other 
enterprises. He made a journey around the globe, with his wife, 
and everywhere received the highest honors from potentates and 
peoples, and was the recipient of substantial tokens of regard. In 
1884 he was seized with an incurable malady (cancer), with which 
he suffered many months, and of which he died in the Drexel cot- 
tage, on Mount McGregor, in Saratoga Countj^ ISTew York, on the 28d 
of July, 1885. By the exercise of a strong will he was enabled to 
begin and finish his autobiography. 



HORATIO SEYMOUR, LL. D. 

One of the most eminent and notable of the later governors of the 
State of New York, and whose name and deeds are familiar to the 
people of the whole Union, M^as Horatio Seymour, a gentleman of 
wealth, scholarly attainments, refinement, public spirit, and a 
statesman of a hiirh order. He was born at Pompc}', Onondago 
County, New York, on the 31st of May, 1816. In his childhood his 
parents removed to Utica. His school education M'as obtained at 
the academies at Oxford and Geneva, New York, and the Military 
Institute of Colonel Partridge at Middletown, Connecticut. He studied 
the science of law and fitted himself for the profession, but he never 
entered upon its practice. Having inherited a large estate from his 
deceased father, he gave largely of his time and attention to its 
management, and to reading, for he had an intense thirst for knowl- 
edge. When very young, he became a member of the staff of Gov- 
ernor Marcy, and served for six years (1833-1837); and he became 
enamored with public life. 

In 1841 he was elected to a seat in the New York Assembly by 
the De'uocratic party, and held the position four years, by success- 
ive rSelections. He was chosen speaker in 1845, and filled the office 
with dignity and courtesy toward all. He had been elected mayor 
of Utica in 1843, and was specially interested in all public matters 
pertaining to the welfare of that city. 

In 1850 Mr. Seymour was an unsuccessful candidate for governor 
of his natve state, but was elected in 1852. In his administration 
he promoted, b}^ every means in his power, the speedy completion 
of public works then in progress, and evinced deep solicitude for 
the success of measures for the diffusion of p(jpular education. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS 503 



Mr. Seymour incurred the displeasure of the advocates of tern 
perance by vetoing a prohibitory liquor bill; and in 1854 he was de- 
feated as a candidate for r(3election by Myron H. Clark, tin? Pro- 
hibition candidate. Mr. Seymour was again elected governor in 
1862. The Civil War was then raging. AVhile severely condemning 
many of the measures of the National administration and was favor 
ably inclined to the general policy of the Peace faction he gave 
his support to the government, though not very cordially. He always 
opposed Secession as a heresy, but his dealings with tlie great ques- 
tion of the hour were so conservative, especially with the Draft riots 
in New York, that he did not satisfy the desires of the loyal men 
even of his own party. 

Mr. Seymour was defeated at the election in the fall of 1864, in 
wdiich year he presided over the Democratic National Convention at 
Chicago which nominated General McClellan for the Presidency of the 
United States. In 1868 Mr. Seymour was nominated for the presi- 
dency, much against his will, and was defeated by General Grant. 
He then retired from the arena of political life forever, and dwelt in 
elegant repose at his pleasant seat at Deevfield, not far from Utica, 
devoting his attention to agriculture, and kindred pursuits, but 
taking a lively interest in all current social and political questions. 
Mr. Seymour died at Utica on the 12th of February, 1886. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 

In the year of grace, 1835, a "Broad-cloth mob," so called be- 
cause it was incited and led by men of wealth and high social posi- 
tion, broke into a meeting of the "Women's Anti-Slavery Society," 
in Boston, and, by acts of violence, dispersed them. 

That society was composed of some of the best women of the New 
England capital and elsewhere. Its president was Maria Weston Chap- 
maii, "than whom America" (says a late writer) "never knew a 
"better trained, more cultivated or more earnest woman, with nobler 
manners, with a larger heart, or richer in saving common sense." 
William Lloyd Garrison was participating in the proceedings of the 
meeting. The well-dressed ruffians seized him, put a rope around 
his body and dragged him from the hall and through the streets, 
and his life was saved only by his being put in jail as a "disturber 
of the peace," the Mayor of Boston refusing to interfere. Among 
the spectators of that scene was a handsome young man, less than 
twenty-five years of age, a scion of one of the leading families of 
Boston. He was deeply impressed, and from that moment he con- 
secrated his powers to the championship of the down- trodden, of 
whatever sex, hue or condition. 

That young man was Wendell Philips, son of the first mayor of 
Boston. He Avas born in that city on the 29th of November, 1811-, 
was graduated at Harvard College; educated for the legal profession 
at the Cambridge Law School, and admitted to the bar in 1834. 
He abandoned his profession, for he possessed a competence for life. 



504 GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN. 



He first distinguished liimself as a fluent speaker, an eloquent 
orator and able logician, at an indignation meeting held in Boston, 
in 1837, to consider the assassination of a New England-born 
clergyman, at Alton, Illinois, by a pro-slavery mob. His speech on 
that occasion was logical, manly, but fierj, carrying with it the 
convictions which filled his own heart and' mind. From that time 
until the Slave system in the United States perished, in 1868 — a 
period of more than a quarter of a century — the trumpet voice of 
Wendell Phillips was continually heard calling upon his countrymen 
to annihilate the wasting and degrading evil. He was equally the 
champion of temperance and the natural rights of women, and of 
every human creature struggling for deliverance from bondage. By 
this championship he lost'caste among persons ranking high in so- 
ciety, and sacrificed his personal ease; but he had the more prec- 
ious riches of a conscience void of offence before God and before 
man and the gain of having "fought the good fight" and won the 
crown. When the Lyceum system was established, Mr. Phillips 
was one of the most sought after "lecturers." His themes almost 
always pertained to the cause which lay nearest his heart. There 
were notable exceptions. His grand discourse on "The Lost Arts" 
always drew crowded houses, everywhere, for many years. He 
was not a man of "one idea." He discussed current topics with 
equal ability and zeal. He could not be indifferent to or neutral in 
anything. Mr. Phillips died in Boston, on the 2d of February, 1884. 
In person he was tall, and well-proportioned. His deportment 
was simple and dignified. His face was most pleasing in expression 
and his voice was charming. 



GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN. 

Among the most skillful engineers of our army when the late 
Civil War began, who had acquired rare practical knowledge in 
the war with Mexico, was George B. McClellan, son of an eminent 
surgeon of Philadelphia, where he was born on the 3d of December, 
1826. At the age of sixteen years, he w^as graduated at the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, and at twenty, at the West Point Military 
Academy. With the commission of brevet second lieutenant, he 
went to Mexico in 1846, and served with great credit in nearly every 
battle between that country and the United States, and won the 
brevets of first lieutenant and captain, for gallantry. 

After the war he returned to West Point. In 1851 he was as- 
signed to duty in the construction of Fort Delaware, and sub- 
sequently in the exploration of the sources of the Red River of the 
North, and a route for the Northern Pacific Railroad. 

In 1851 he was promoted to captain of cavalry, and the same 
year he was sent to Europe at the head of a military commission to 
visit the seat of war between the English and French and the Rus- 
sians. On his return he made an able report on the "Organization 
€f European Armies and Operations in the Crimea." 

In 1857 McClellan resigned his army commission and became the 



GEORGE BRINTON McCLELLAN 



505 




chief engineer and vice-president of the Illinois Central Railroad, 
and president of the St. Louis and Cincinnati Railroad. When 
the Civil AVar began he assisted the Governor of Ohio in organizing 
the volunteers in that state. In May (1861) he was commissioned 
major-general in the regular army, and was directed to disperse 
the Confederate forces gathering in Western Virginia. On the 14th 
of July following he reported that task accomplished. For this 
service he received the thanks of Congress. He was called to 
Washington, and placed in charge of a division of the army, and on 
the 20th of August he was appointed to the command of the Army 
of the Potomac. 

The general-in-chief of the armies of the Republic (Scott), having 
become feeble in mind and body, was induced to retire, and General 
McClellan was appointed to till his place. He was excessively cau- 
tious, and never moved until his forces were thoroughly prepared. 
He lingered about Washington with nearly 200,000 men until the 
spring of 1862, when he was relieved of the general command, and, 
with the Army of the Potomac, embarked for Fortress Monroe to 
open a campaign auaiust Richmond, the Confederate capital. Then 
followed the disastrous Penin.sular campaign, which resulted in 
the retreat of the army to the James River early in July. 



605 ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS, LL.B. 



A er the defeat of General Pope, in Northern Virginia, McClel- 
lan .♦'as placed in command of the defences of Washington. He 
reorganized the army there, and followed Lee into Maryland, in 
September. At the middle of that month he fought the battles of 
South Mountain and Autietam. The delay in pursuing tlie retreat- 
ing Confedei'ates into Virginia created dissatisfaction, and intense 
anxiety in the public mind, and McClellan was relieved of command 
by the President, in November. Burnside succeeded him, and 
McClellan took no further part in the war. In August, 1864, the Dem- 
ocratic National Convention nominated him for the Presidency of 
the United States. He received the electoral votes of only New 
Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky. Mr. Lincoln was reelected by 
an almost unanimous vote. On the day of the election, General 
McClellan resigned his military commission and retired to private 
life. In the spring of 1805 he went to Europe, with his family, 
and on his return, in 1868, he superintended the construction of the 
famous Stevens Batteiy at Hoboken. He afterward became chief - 
engineer of the Department of Docks in the city of New York. In 
the fall of 1877 he was elected Governor of New Jersey, and held 
the oltlce one term. General McClellan died suddenly of heart dis- 
ease at his residence in the city of New York, on October 29, 1885. 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS, LL. D. 

'*I MUST declare here as I have often done before, and which has 
been repeated b}^ the greatest and wisest statesmen and patriots in 
Ihis and other lands, that it is the best and freest government, 
the most equal in its rights, the most just in its decisions, the 
most lenient in its measures, and the most inspiring in its principles 
— to elevate the race of man — that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. 
Now, for you to attempt to overthrow such a government as this, 
under which we have lived for more than three-quarters of a cen- 
tury — in which we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, 
our domestic safety, while the elements of peril are around, with 
peace and tranquillity, accompanied with undisturbed prosperity 
and rights unassailed — is the height of madness, folly, and wicked- 
ness, to which I can neither lend my sanction nor my vote." Thus 
spoke Alexander H. Stephens in the Georgia Secession Convention 
early in January, 1861. A month later he was the vice-president 
of a confederacy formed for the avowed purpose of destroying that 
gnvernmeut ! 

Mr. Stepliens was born in Taliaferro County, Georgia, on Febru- 
ary 11, 1812, and was left an orphan in his early childhood. He 
studied law and was admitted to its practice, in 1834, with the 
advantage of a college education and great mental ability. In early 
manhood he adopted the political doctrine of State supremacy, and 
always believed in the righteousness of slavery. Though small in 
stature and weak in physical constitution, he was remarkable for 
his personal courage. 

In 1834 Mr. Stephens entered the Georgia Legislature, and re- 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON STEPHENS, LL.D. 507 




mained a member until 1840. The next year lie was chosen a state 
senator; and from 1843 until 1859 he continuously represented his 
district in the National Congress. There he was ever an industrious 
worker in committees and a Huent and eli'ective speaker in debate. 
He favored the annexation of Texas; the compromise acts of 1850, 
and the territorial bills which repealed the Missouri compr(miise, 
in 1854. When the old Whig party broke up, he joined the Demo- 
cratic party and favored the election of Douglas to the presidency 
of the United States, in 1860, denouncing those who threatened a dis- 
solution of the Union. On this point he and Toombs were diametri- 
cally opposed, and when the latter spoke of the Union as a curse and 
an oppressor, Stephens always defended it. He opposed seces- 
sion, in the Georgia State Convention, as we have observed; but 
when that convention adopted a secession ordinance Mr. Stephens, 
in accordance with his views of paramount allegiance to his state, 
acquiesced, and signed it. When the organization known as the 
"Confederate States of America" was perfected early in February, 
1861, and Jefferson Davis was elected president, Mr. Stephens was 
elected vice-president, and accepted the office. He worked zealously 
for the success of the revolutionary movement, and while on his 



508 SAMUEL JONES TILDEN. 



way to Richmond to effect a military arrangement with the insur- 
gents in that state, he aroused the peo^Dle with a cry of "On to 
Washington!" to seize the National capital. 

Everywhere Mr Stephens declared that slavery was the true cor- 
ner-stone of the new government wdiich had just been formed. 
After the collapse of the Confederacy he w^as arrested and confined 
several months in Fort Warren, in Boston harbor. The Georgia 
Legislature elected him to a seat in the National Senate in 1866, but 
as the Union was not then restored, he was not allowed to occupy 
it. He was chosen a member of Congress for several successive 
terms, by overwhelming majorities. In 1882 he was elected Gov- 
ernor of Georgia, and held that position at the time of his death 
which occurred on the 3d of March, 1883, at his home at Craw- 
fordsville, Georgia. 

Mr. Stephens wrote a work which he entitled a "Constitutional 
View of the War between the States;" a misnomer, for there was 
never any war "between the States." It was a war of the National 
government against its own enemies in some of the states. 



SAMUEL JONES TILDEN. 

One of the most astute publif: men of our time, was Samuel Jones 
Tilden, who died of compression of the heart at his elegant country resi- 
dence, "Greystone," on the 4th of August, 1886. Hi^s seat, near Yon- 
kers, Westchester County, New York, overlooked the Hudson River. 
Mr. Tilden was of a faniily of Kentish folk, of Puritan stock. The 
first of the family who came from England to Plymouth, in 1623, 
engaged with nine others in founding the town of Scituate. His son 
to()k\ip his abode in the Connecticut colony, where the grandfather 
of the subject of this sketch was born. His son Ehun married a 
daughter of Lieutenant-Governor AYilliam Jones, and they became 
the parents of Samuel. Elam became a prosperous farmer and 
country merchant at New Lebanon, Columbia County, New York, 
where "Samuel was born on the 4th of February, 1814. He was a 
physically weak youth. His father being a personal and political 
friend of Martin Van Buren and other Democratic politicians, his 
bright boy often enjoyed listening to the c(mversation of several 
members of the famous "Albany "Regency," and he became early 
enamored of ])olitics. While yet a mere youth he wrote a ])olitical 
essay which was published in \he Albany ^irgus, and was attrilnited 
to ]!i'[artin Van Buren. The latter highly commended the lad. In 
1837 young Tilden entered Yale College. His health failed, and he 
returned home. He finished his college course at the University of 
New York; studied law with Benjamin F. Butler; wrote for the 
press; became a journalist, and in 1844 establislied the Daily JS/ews. 
He soon returned to the bar and became a sound but not a brilliant 
advocate. He was elected a member of the New York Assembly 
by the Democrats, and was a delegate to the convention which re- 
vised the Constitution of the State of New York in 1846. He was 
an unsuccessful candidate for the attorney-generalship of the state, 



SAMUEL JOKES TILDEN. 500 



in 1855. Statistics and figures were liis special delight, and in all 
legal cases where these were depended \ipon, he was generally suc- 
cessful, especially when acting as counsel for corpo-ations. 

Mr. Tilden was a bitter opponent of the Republican party, 
charging it with being the creator of sectionalism in our country, 
socially and politically. He deprecated Mr. Lincoln's call for 
75,000 troops in 1861, declaring it should have been for 500,000, so as 
to crush the rebellion at once. He and Governor Seymour were gen- 
erally in accord concerning the policy of the government during the 
war. He labored successfully in the task of overthrowing the 
"Tweed Ring," in which he was assisted by the late Charles O'Conor, 
although the gang were mostly their political brethren. This feat 
gained for him much applause as a reformer an^l patriotic citizen. 
In 1874 he was elected Governor of the State of New York, and in 
1876 he wa- a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. 
He was unsuccessful. His name was ]ilaced before the Democratic 
nominating convention in 1880, but he withdrew it. He always 
asserted that he was not an aspirant for the office of president after 
1876. 

Mr. Tilden was an acute political manager. Although out of the 
arena of active politics, he maintained immense influence in the 
councils of the Democratic party until the last. Simple funer^d 
ceremonies were held at Greystone on the morning of the 7tli of 
August, and the body was conveyed to New Lebanon, and deposited 
in the family burial jilace in a rural cemetery there. 

Mr. Tilden left a fortune estimated at fully $5,000,000. About 
$1,000,000 he bequeathed by will, with wholesome restrictions, for 
the benefit of members of the Tilden family. The remainder of the 
estate was left to the custody and management of his executors and 
trustees, John Bigelow, Andrew H. Green, and George W. Smith, 
with extraordinaiy discretionary powers. They were empowered to de- 
vote the estate left to their discretion to purposes for the public good 
in accordance with the dictates of their best judgment, without 
restraint. The only restriction imposed was a provision for the 
establishment of a free public library at New Lebanon, his birth-place, 
and another at Yonkers, near whicli place he died. A free public 
library on a grand scale in the city of New York was a favorite 
idea with Mr. Tilden. It would be a most enduring monument to 
his memory. 



^o 



